An overview of Android Wearable devices and interaction methods

1. 1
Android Wear

2. 2
Who am I?
 Frederick Bousson
 Competence Center Leader Mobile / IoT
 IoTBE Regional Hub Organiser
 Frederick.Bousson@ordina.be
 @fbousson

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Get hyped!
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K2imXXF1lS0

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Agenda
 What is Android Wear
- Hardware Overview
- Feature Overview
- Living with Wear
 Voice Input
 Writing apps

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Android History
 Android 4.3 JellyBean -> Bluetooth Low Energy Support
 Android 4.4 KitKat -> Lower Memory usage (512MB RAM)
 Android 4.4W -> Android Wear specific (~= Android 3.0 HoneyComb)
 Android 5 Lollipop -> Universal
 Android API + Wear specific support library

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Project Brillo

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Internet of Things

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Typical Wear hardware -> Super Cheap
 Middle class SOC, 1 core
enabled.
 512MB ram
 Low resolution screen.
Round or square.
 Small battery: 320 – 420 mAh
 Usually no SIM, WIFI, GPS
 Bluetooth
 IP67 or higher

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Major vendor support

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LG G Watch
 Generation 1
 Dies: Corrosion gate
 No hardware on-off button
 Cheap (€ 109 )

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Samsung Gear Live
 Generation 1
 Meh.
 Clunky charger breaks
 Samsung
 Tizen alternatives
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U8jsDWV8YpQ

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Asus Zenwatch
 Classy
 Great Value
 Decent internals
 Design?

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Sony Smartwatch 3
 IP68 -> swimming!
 GPS
 Sports oriented
 Micro USB Charger
 Dodgy screen

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LG G Watch R
 Plastic OLED
 Good battery life
 Round
 Manly man’s watch
 Bezel

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LG Urbane
 Pretty classy
 Pretty premium
 Pretty expensive
 Same as G Watch R
 Less bezel

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MOTO 360
 Pretty
 QI Charging
 Outdated internals
 Round + flat tire
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y0oPJk3Ajl8

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Moto 360 v2
 Customizable
 Waterproof
 Better internals

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Apple Watch
 Similar features
 Better hardware
 Premium

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Android Wear Compatibility
 Wear is compatible with all Android 4.3 phones
 http://www.android.com/wear/check/
 Limited integration with iPhone

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Typical software / Operating System
 It’s all the same.
 Google does not allow software modifications / branding of Wear.
 Vendors have to differentiate on hardware
- Heart rate monitor
- Water proofing
- Ambient light sensor
- Screen type
- Charging
- Design
- …

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Connectivity

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Interactions

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Turning it on
 Button (optional)
 Touch the screen
 Wristy twisty
 Notifications

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Turning it off
 Button (optional)
 Low timeout
 Cover the screen (optional -> light sensor)
 Notification level: All, Priority, None
 Theater Mode
 Ambient mode <-> Screen off

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Interaction
 Small concise actions
 Focused & context aware
 Short interaction
 Notifications
 Voice commands
 Apps

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Notifications Mirroring
 Notification mirroring: The Context Stream
- Plain old notifications
- Wear specific notifications: Stacked + Interactions
 Launched automatically
 Glanceable
 Zero or low interaction

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Voice commands
 Always listening
 Just like on Smart Phones
 Ok Google <- Free ad for Google.
 System provided <-> App provided

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System provided
 Navigate home
 Remind me to pack my sports gear when I’m home
 Play music (Play song X by Y)
 What’s my heart rate
 Send a text / message / email
 Take a note
 What’s my Agenda (for day X)
 Set alarm / timer

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App provided
 App based voice commands
 Start “Label” starts an activity.
 Labels are fixed. You can’t listen to everything and filter.
 Not easy to discover.

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Apps
- Plain old Android app with Wear specific
UI components
- Apps get bundled with apk for handheld.
Standalone not possible via store.
- Usually companion apps for handheld
versions.
- Not very mature yet.

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Wear configuration
 Use companion app to configure the Wear device
- Pairing / disconnect via bluetooth
- Watch faces
- Voice Actions
- Browse apps
- Screenshots
- Battery
- Storage
- Resync apps
- Debugging

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3rd party Apps
 Wear Mini Launcher
 Poweramp Remote
 Runkeeper
 Wear Camera
 Telegram / Whatsapp / Hangouts / Mail
 Hue control
 Maps
 Facer
 …
https://play.google.com/store/apps/collection/promotion_3000cf4_andro
id_wear_all?hl=en

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Living with Wear
 I don’t like watches.
 I do like gadgets.
 It runs Android, so I need this… for science.
 The smart phone smart watch as life’s remote control.
 Think of it as a watch, but with extra’s.
 It’s very slow to operate. For most actions I just grab my phone anyway
 It’s strapped to your body. You can’t lose it, it’s always there for you.
 It’s fast for small interactions.
 Health device. Shows promise, but just not there yet.

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Places to use Wear

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Bathroom

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Car

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Sports

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Office

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Home

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Commuting

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Night life

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No Internet

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Input
 Your other hand 
- Using both hands is very cumbersome. One handed smartphone usage is
more flexible.
 Voice =/
- Even I have a geek threshold I won’t cross.
 Your nose 
- I am not alone (@ reddit ).

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The good
 It’s a watch.
 Aesthetically pleasing: hardware + watchfaces
 All day battery under normal usage.
 Charges quickly.
 Not grabbing your phone every 5 minutes is stress relieving.
 Never missing calls / messages anymore.
 Notifications are fun and efficient.
 Fun remote control.
 Proximity unlocking.

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The bad
 Buggy.
 Usability is a work in progress.
 Loses connection.
 Sudden battery drain + heat.
 Battery life while actually using it.
 Scratches.
 Not that many apps.
 Limited integration with existing apps.
 Long interactions aren’t fun.
 Low res screen: low quality images.

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The future?
 Vendors need this to be a success. They need a new source of
revenue because the smartphone market is saturated.
 It can be very cheap or very expensive.
 If you’re going to own a watch, might as well own a smart watch.
 Still waiting for killer app / integration with existing apps.
 Still waiting to see what next gen will bring in regards of screen
quality and battery life.
 Other form factors?

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The future? part 2
 Should become a universal remote for everything.
 Will voice input become an accepted way of interaction? It kinda felt
pretty awkward talking to my watch in public.

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User Interface

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Automate!

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Tasker
 App
 https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.dinglisch.android.task
erm just €2,99
 Triggers: App, Time, Day, Location, Hard/Soft State, Event, Shortcut,
Widget, Timer, Plugins
 Actions: 200+ built-in, plugin support
 Tasks: loops, variables, conditions
 Scenes: design your own screen overlays
 Extensible via plugins

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Auto all the things!
 AutoInput: UI automation. A bit like Selenium. Relies on accessibility.
UI scraping possible.
 AutoVoice: Scrape voice input from Google Now. Feed it into tasker.
 AutoWear: Voice commands on Wear. Bypassing Google Now
 Hue plugin
 Action Box -> Poweramp plugin + other stuff.
 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZPd515IN_G0

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Scenarios
 Turn on Hue lights: AutoWear + Hue plugin
 Turn on Chromecast mirroring: AutoInput + AutoWear
 Spotify Random playlist: AutoInput + AutoWear
 Poweramp: Action Box
 Bank Account demo: AutoInput + AutoWear + Notification
 Time: Text2Speech engine

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Some thoughts
 Hue controls can sometimes be slow
 Wristy twisty works a lot better than on vid.
Odd angle + filming = frowny face
 Not all keywords work well. See what works best.
 Sound on device is auto muted when accepting voice commands.

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Developing for Wear

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Developing for Wear
 Extensive UI / design guidelines
http://developer.android.com/design/wear/index.html
 Extensive API documentation:
http://developer.android.com/training/building-wearables.html
 Basically, it’s just Android, with a different UI toolkit and data api.

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Samples: androidsdk/samples/android-21/wearable
 AgendaData EmbeddedApp GridViewPager
RecipeAssistant Timer
 DataLayer FindMyPhone JumpingJack
SkeletonWearableApp WatchFace
 DelayedConfirmation Flashlight Notifications
SpeedTracker WatchViewStub
 ElizaChat Geofencing Quiz
SynchronizedNotifications

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Notifications

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Wear App UI Toolkit

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Wearable Listview

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2D Picker

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Wearable DataLayer API
 Data Items: Data storage with automatic syncing
 Messages: RPC, Request + Reponse
 Asset: Binary blobs of data
 WearableListenerService (background)
 DataListener (foreground activities)
 Avoid direct low level sockets
 Google Play Service

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Code time!

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ReMorse
 Running on emulator
 Running on device
 Libraries:
- Android v4 support library
- Wearable Data Layer -> Google Services -> 
- Wearable UI support library
 Debugging over bluetooth
 Packaging

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Feature request?
 http://youtu.be/EbQ2JvRxNq0?t=43s
 http://youtu.be/EbQ2JvRxNq0?t=3m15s

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Conclusion
 No regrets, it’s nice, but I want Glass
 Will probably also run Android Wear

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Q&A