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The Cicret Bracelet puts a smartphone display on your arm with full touchscreen functionality

When Android Wear and Apple Watch launched, each device touted the ability to bring the functionality of a phone to your wrist. This has been executed with varying degrees of success. While I am able to check my notifications and carry out certain tasks on my Apple Watch, an iPhone it is not.

That’s where the Cicret Bracelet makes its entrance. This conceptual project from a band of former Apple, Dell, InFocus employees quite literally puts your device’s home screen on your wrist. With a fitness tracker-style band and micro projector, Cicret has an intriguing game plan. Head below to see it in action.

Originally detailed back in 2014, Cicret has been developed over the course of the last few years. Visually, it looks a lot like Jawbone’s UP24 fitness tracker. But instead of focusing on physical activity, this wristband brings full smartphone functionality to your arm. It’s all built around a tiny projector stashed inside the wristband. Aside from replicating your phone’s screen, it is also able to detect movements and inputs. The proximity sensor can track what is happening and relays commands to your device via Bluetooth.

Cicret says that its new wristband will be able to mirror Android, Apple and Windows Phone devices. There isn’t much information here in terms of how this is accomplished, be it AirPlay or another software function. In the video below, you’ll notice that this feature is only replicated with an Android device and shows an early rendering of the software will work. The product itself runs a modified version of Android and has 32GB of built-in storage. There is also a vibrator for alerts and Wi-Fi plus Bluetooth radios.

So what does this all mean? Well, for one, it’s bound to be a more effective way to use your device than any of the other current options on the market. But that all hinges on Cicret’s ability to bring this product to fruition. One of my biggest complaints about the Apple Watch is how poorly the functionality of my phone has been replicated on the wearable. Aside from receiving notifications and tracking my daily exercise, there isn’t a lot of must-have functionality there. The ability to have full access to all of my apps and information would be a lust-worthy feature.

Although the concept was previously introduced a few years back, Cicret is currently in the midst of a crowdfunding project through its own website. It’s taking an interesting approach to raising money. There are a handful of different donation options, each of which knocks down the price of a Cicret pre-order later this year. For example, a $100 pledge today reduces the final price to $150 when the product is ready to be launched. It’s a unique to plan to skip Kickstarter or Indiegogo in favor of handling this process internally. Use appropriate judgement here if you were to be interested in funding this project.

The Cicret Bracelet is set to begin pre-orders with a retail price of $300 in the fall. Customers that donate by the end of the month can lock in a discounted price of $250. Cicret will initially be available in four different colors with a water-resistant casing.

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Comments

  1. شایاں شاہ - 9 years ago

    I want to ask that it is necessary to have phone to use cicret bracelet

  2. Vash Vgl - 10 years ago

    This is what this product had reminded me of. The Riot wrist projector that failed
    http://techcrunch.com/2014/09/30/the-impossible-projection-watch-hits-1-4-million-in-crowdfunding/

    • Trevor Daugherty - 10 years ago

      Very similar. This project certainly has an up-hill battle to being a viable project, but it’s not hard to see the intriguing possibilities here.

  3. Jonathan Cooper - 10 years ago

    This is clearly not possible. Why are you sharing this “product”?

    • Trevor Daugherty - 10 years ago

      As we noted, this is a conceptual product with intriguing potential as a seed for future ideas. Thanks for reading!

  4. jjharo - 10 years ago

    This is not real. And the fact that my previous comment stating this was removed makes me seriously question the journalistic integrity of this site. If you’re going to start posting false information or “gag” stories. You should let us know, we’ll gladly look another way.

    • Trevor Daugherty - 10 years ago

      As we note in the post, this is a conceptual product. It’s newsworthy from the perspective of its potential as a wearable technology. Thanks for reading.

  5. Probably Joel - 10 years ago

    The keywords here are “pledge” and “donate.” By donating, you are not assuming a successful development with a product as advertised.

    After naively being a part of two crowdsourced campaigns that failed miserably (Scribble Pen, CST-01 Watch), I’m seeing the $50 price difference as an insurance for me, i.e. by paying $50 more in the future I’m potentially saving $100 loss in case the campaign fails, which is very likely given the track record of crowdsourced projects.

    • Trevor Daugherty - 10 years ago

      Agreed, as a conceptual product it’s a “donate” at your own risk situation. But it’s intriguing as a potential wearable, for sure.

      • Nathaniel Soares - 8 years ago

        i love the idea i hope you can complete it successfully and i think it will be a huge seccses if you can pull it of.sorry if i spelt any thing wrong i am 13 and bad at ela but good at math

  6. Showing physically-impossible mockups is not a very good way to make a first impression.

    Nothing wrong with the idea of short-throw projecting an image on your arm; that’s totally feasible if they can build really really good optics. The impossible part is PROJECTING BLACK. The actual images projected by these will have no colors darker than the color of your skin.

  7. Richard Nelap - 10 years ago

    The video shows nice smooth forearms… how about a nice hairy gorilla arm?

    • mpias3785 - 10 years ago

      Imagine being too hairy to answer a call? What happens if you get goosebumps or a breeze causes your arm hair to rustle? We thought butt dialing was embarrassing. We’re entering a brave new world of arm Botox and arm-waxing.

      • Trevor Daugherty - 10 years ago

        That’s a great question! Thanks for reading.

    • Trevor Daugherty - 10 years ago

      Obviously the conceptual videos shown are ideal circumstances, if the product were to come to fruition it would be interesting to see how this type of scenario would be handled. Thanks for reading!

Author

Avatar for Trevor Daugherty Trevor Daugherty

Trevor Daugherty is the Senior Editor of gadgetnewsonline. Since joining in 2014, he’s specialized in product reviews, exclusive discounts and 9to5’s New Toy of the Day. Contact him direct at trevor@9to5mac.com.