Wearables

LinkMe bracelet displays text messages on your wrist

The LinkMe bracelet displays SMS, Facebook or Twitter messages
The LinkMe bracelet displays SMS, Facebook or Twitter messages

So, here’s the scenario ... you’re in a meeting, and your phone vibrates in your pocket as it receives a text message. You’re really curious as to what the message is, but you know that it just “isn’t done” to pull your phone out in front of everyone to check. If you were wearing a LinkMe bracelet, however, you could just glance at your wrist, where the message would be crawling across an LED screen in big red or blue letters.

The LinkMe links with the user’s smartphone by Bluetooth, and displays SMS, Facebook, Twitter or other text messages, only from parties selected by the user. Even though that’s a bit of a safeguard, some rather embarrassing situations could still arise – imagine being in that same meeting, with your co-workers observing the words “You were insatiable last night!” glowing from your wrist. Perhaps the risk of that happening would just make the LinkMe more exciting to wear.

When it isn’t showing text messages, the bracelet defaults to displaying the time of day. Its screen is made up of 125 LEDs, although buyers can upgrade to 203. One charge of its lithium-ion battery is said to be good for two weeks, although that depends on how much action it sees.

LinkMe is still in the prototype phase (like the somewhat similar EMBRACE+ bracelet), with its designers currently raising production funds on Kickstarter. Features that may make their way onto the final version include a vibrating message alert feature, waterproofing, the ability to display a variety of emoticons, multi-colored LEDs, and the option of displaying wearer-supplied messages.

A pledge of US$99 will get you a LinkMe of your own, when and if they’re ready to go. More information is available in the pitch video below.

Source: Kickstarter

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4 comments
Ozuzi
I like it! My wife never hears her phone (when I need her to) in her leather handbag
Essa Alessa
no one uses SMS anymore its whats up or some 3rd party application SMS is used by bank transactions confirmations and i think any product or application that main idea is SMS wont make it in the wild
Bob Flint
Having a billboard on your wrist is soooo much more discreet, so unless you have your hands under the table in a meeting, everyone can see your in coming.
If your intention is to get attention then yes why not add a vibrate, and or thermo mechanical pinching?
Chuck Anziulewicz
I suspect people would want to use these bracelets LESS for viewing email and text messages, and more as a programmable fashion fad. In a meeting it would be less distracting for someone to glance at his smartphone than to gaze at a glowing red marquee crawling around his wrist.