To Battle Apple Watch, a Future Samsung Wearable Could Feature an Optical Zoom Camera Lens
Samsung is definitely thinking outside the box while trying to compete with the growing popularity of the Apple Watch. First found by Patently Apple, a new patent describes a Samsung wearable device with an optical zoom camera lens that protrudes from the watch display when needed.
An image of the watch from Samsung's patent application.
Here’s more from report:
In a nutshell, Samsung describes their patent this way: “A wearable device and a control method are provided. The wearable device includes a display configured to display time information, a camera configured to photograph an image, a sensor configured to sense a user’s motion, and a processor configured to analyze the user’s motion based on a sensing value sensed by the sensor and to perform an image photographing if the user’s motion satisfies an image photographing condition, thereby enabling the user to perform image photographing easily using the wearable device.”
Wearers could control the zoom in and zoom out function of the lens by using the bezel manipulator and side jog dial that acts similarly to the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown.
For its part, Apple has also patented an idea to bring a camera to the Apple Watch. But so far no rumors have pointed to Apple adding a camera to the next-generation device that will more than likely arrive sometime this fall. And I definitely think that’s a good thing as my nearby iPhone will always be able to take a better photo.
If you just absolutely must have a camera-enabled Apple Watch, the CMRA band can be preordered for $189 and brings an outward-facing and selfie camera.
