While there is no shortage of smart watches and wearables in the market boasting similar functions, this watch strap wants to solve a basic problem: taking private phone calls using your wearables.
TipTalk is a watch strap that transmits sounds via vibrations through your body, allowing you to respond calls by just tapping your ear.
Founded in 2015 by three ex-Samsung staff, Innomdle Lab, is the first spinoff company from the Samsung incubator center.
Users can strap TipTalk to their existing watch, with a standard size of 18 ~ 24 mm, while the watch strap is connected to phones using Bluetooth. A user can answer the phone by placing their finger to their ear and speaking into a receiver on the watch strap. The battery allows for a six-hour-long call and lasts for seven days.
The patented technology transmits the voice through the body, based on two accompanying technologies: an actuator unit that generates a body-conductible vibration with low power consumption, and an audio algorithm that selectively amplifies voice signals with proper wavelength modulation.
“People who prefer classic watch, don’t want to wear wearables because it doesn’t look nice with their suit,” Wenxing Bai, business manager at Innomdle Lab told TechNode. “On the other hand, smart watch users don’t take phone calls on their watch, because everyone can hear the conversation.”
The company was nominated as one of the top 15 companies at Asia Hardwares Battle 2016, representing South Korea. TipTalk will be available through a Kickstarter crowdfunding campaign in June, focusing on South Korea, China and the US market, and launching their product to the market in the second half of this year.
The company says their sound transmission technology can be further developed into other areas, such as transmitting signal through your body for personal authorization.
“People have different hand structures, including bones and flesh. Using the signal transmitting technology, TipTalk will be able to identify people when a hand touches certain object, like car door,” Mr. Bai said.
The company is looking to collaborate with classic watch companies in the future, to embed the technology into traditional watches.
Image Credit: Innomdle Lab
This article is part of our coverage from Technode’s Asia Hardware Battle and China Bang Awards 2016 event held in Chengdu on March 30th-31st.