The smartwatch is still in its infancy, and it’s still very much in need of development, especially when it comes to inputting commands into the device. Smartwatches still heavily rely on their tiny screen, which isn’t as easy to use as a smartphone screen.
But what if we gave the smartwatch the “Nintendo DS” treatment — two screens? That’s the idea behind Doppio, a dual-face smartwatch concept. That’s not it though — not only does the concept have two screens, but the layout of those screens can be rearranged as much as desired to facilitate different uses.
The concept was developed and engineered by Teddy Seyed, Xin-Dong Yang, and Daniel Vogel from the University of Calgary, and the idea could bring a new level of functionality to smartwatches. Not only can the secondary display be moved to anywhere around the primary one, but it can also be rotated as a way to input commands. For example, a video shows a user rotating the display 180 degrees as a way to tell it to switch to music controls from the standard clock. Of course, the two displays can also be placed side by side to be used as one larger display.
You don’t have to use both displays. If you want your watch to be a little sleeker, you can simply take off the second display, and only take it out when you want to have dual-screen functionality.
Speaking of sleek, the device is obviously a proof-of-concept rather than a consumer-ready device. In the video, it’s quite chunky, but the idea itself is a solid one. Trying to control a smartwatch on a tiny little display isn’t exactly efficient. Perhaps trying to control it on two tiny little displays will be a little easier.
Check out the video below to see the concept in action.