Back again for day three of the Android Developer Conference. The first talk of the day comes from Keith Clanton, technical director at WIMM Labs. His talk was entitled “Micro Apps for Wearbable Devices.” At the heart of this talk is the WIMM One, a wrist watch-sized device that can be interfaced with an Android phone.
The WIMM One is not only a window into your phone, it's also a micro app platform, said Clanton. That means developers can add WIMM functionality to their traditional Android applications. A WIMM One wearer could check his or her wrist to see the time, check a recent email, or read an SMS without having to pull out their phone.
Developing applications for a 1-inch screen is a very different problem, said Clanton. To that end, he detailed some of the best practices for UI design for such a small device.
Those UI guidelines state that developers should focus on interface gestures like swipes and taps, and endeavor to simplify features, minimize input and reduce hierarchy. “Simplicity and consistency are critical to a successful UI on a micro device. We try to use the paradigms as consistently as possible so they seem familiar to the users. This is a simplified view, that's why it's critical to simplify everything. We all want our applications to look cool, but keep it simple. Streamline features and if they don't make sense or don't work, remove them. Not only is the user wasting lots of time if they're having to do tedious input on the device, but we're also wearing down the battery. It's not efficient for the user or the device to try and accomplish too much on the device. We want to augment and compliment the functionality of existing devices not replace them. This isn't a replacement for a phone,” said Clanton.
Aside from these UI concerns, the WIMM One sticks closely to most of the existing Android APIs. The WIMM One APIs sit on the same layer as the Android API stack, and only a few of its features require special use.
One of the APIs on the WIMM One that does differ is the network API. Clanton said that a key concern for the WIMM One was battery life, which he said is now standing at around one day. To maintain this long battery life, strict controls over the device's radio transmitters and receivers was required, said Clanton.
“In order to have more than a day of battery life, we had to manage the radio. At a given interval, we turn on wifi. If a network is available, we notify each registered application, and each application connects to the Internet. Then the system tells these applications that the network is about to go down. We have to very carefully control any of the system resources to get that day of battery life, and one application that misbehaves can ruin it for everyone. Sometimes we may not grant the request to keep the network up for that application,” said Clanton.
The WIMM One begins shipping on November 9, tomorrow. The WIMM SDK can be downloaded now.