It doesn’t matter how expensive or powerful a smartwatch is, the device is still limited by its small screen size, and while making the screen bigger seems like an obvious solution, nobody wants to have a gargantuan watch weighing their wrist down. Lenovo’s solution is much more realistic, not to mention clever. Functioning in a way that’s similar to a periscope, the company’s new Magic View smartwatch concept uses two screens to create an optical reflection that produces a virtual image that can be up to 20 times larger than the watch face.
One of the biggest conundrums of smartwatches has been screen size. Make it too large and it looks unseemly on your wrist, meanwhile, small wearables are plagued by an unreadable display. Today at its TechWorld Conference in Beijing, Lenovo unveiled a Magic View smartwatch concept that features two screens. At first glance the watch resembles the LG Watch Urbane and Moto 360 with a round display, but right underneath it is a second screen, which acts as an virtual interactive image. Lenovo CTO Peter Hortensius highlighted that the problems with smartwatches is their screens aren’t designed to present a large enough picture that is also neither immersive enough picture isn’t large, immersive enough or private. To solve this problems users can peer into the second screen like a periscope for more personal messages and immersive experiences. Lenovo explained that the second screen removes the physical limitations of the main screen by using optical reflections to produce a virtual image 20 times larger than the watch face. Showing off a few use cases Lenovo, demonstrated using the second display to project a bigger map, photo slideshow and even play a video.
