As if competition isn’t hot enough already for watchmakers wanting to be the wristwear of choice for the world’s population, along comes a British inventor with another gadget for the prized position.
Dr Raj Partheban, founder of start-up WITgrip (Wearable Interactive Technology grip), is convinced that people will increasingly want to make video calls on their smartphones, but will find holding their phones up to their faces exhausting.
When super fast 5G technology is rolled out, it will fire up demand for video-conferencing, which in turn will give people muscle strain if they hold up a smartphone for any length of time.
“Holding a smartphone out in front of you for long periods of time is impractical, so the interface usually considered is mounting a phone on the back of the wrist,” says Partheban. “However, this makes the device glanceable at best — try it yourself. Look at the back of the wrist and in under a minute you’ll start to feel strain, perhaps in your neck, your forearm and your shoulder. This position puts stress on the muscles and tendons and causes fatigue and discomfort.” Dr Partheban says.
The WITgrip solution is to mount the smartphone on the side of the wrist, which places the wearer in an anatomical ‘neutral’ viewing position, the company says.
“Relax, start again and look at the side of your wrist where the device would be, you’ll experience that there is no strain on the arm, shoulder or neck,” Partheban says. “This position enables prolonged interaction and ensures you can see the screen comfortably.”
