by JAMES S. KIM
What’s great about “wearable” devices like Google Glass is that they don’t just offer fancy tech — they can be quite fashionable, too. For instance, Glass boasts multiple colors, frames, shades and even earbuds for their fearless wallet-wielding “Explorers.”
Samsung has a foot (or hand, if you will) in the wearables market with their Galaxy Gear smartwatch, but they’re looking to add another dimension to the game. Their answer to Glass, as well as future smartwatch interactions, will include flexible printed circuit boards (PCBs), according to Slash Gear.
Compared to Glass, which has rigid circuitboards that creates a quite visible protrusion on the device, a HDI-Flex PCB that bends freely could give wearables designers “far greater scope” in developing their products. The boards could allow for displays that hug the contours of the face more closely and be adjusted depending on the user.
Samsung Electro-Mechanics unveiled a number of flexible PCBs last week that could potentially make their way into future devices. As shown in the image above, one could wrap inside a face-hugging headset that looks a tad less conspicuous than Glass, while another could fit the curves of a flexible smartwatch that forms to a user’s wrist. There’s also a device more akin to a Bluetooth earpiece with a monocle display, apparently called the “Earphone.”
This all makes the hushed rumors of the so-called “Samsung Gear Blink” a bit more tangible since Samsung revealed potential designs over a year ago. Keep your eyes and ears pealed because Samsung might unveil its line of eyewear in March 2015 or so.
Images via Slash Gear
