technabob » seiko

seiko slimstick tracks your every move

technabob — Sat, 26 Apr 2008 11:30:34 +0000

This modern twist on the classic pedometer doesn’t just track your steps, it lets you keep tabs on the quality of the exercise you get during your day-to-day life.

Unlike meters that just count your steps, the Seiko SlimStick uses modern dual-axis accelerometers to track the magnitude of your movements, giving greater value to more intensive exercise. Just clip the compact SlimStick onto your clothes or stick it in a pocket, and it’ll track your activity level.

The SlimStick can count calories burned over the course of the day, amount of time you were active, the number of steps you walked as well as an overall exercise quality score. It’ll store up to twelve weeks of summary data, so you can check your progress over time.

All those smarts fit into a sleek brushed aluminum case that’s just about the size of a pack of chewing gum. They’re available in silver, pink or gold metal finishes, and retail between ¥5,775 and ¥6,984 (appx. $55 to $67 USD). Seiko is currently selling these only in Japan, where you can find them at AssistOn.

seiko discus watch: let the spinning wheels spin

technabob — Sun, 30 Dec 2007 15:02:49 +0000

This gorgeous new watch from Seiko Japan uses a series of spinning aluminum discs to display the current time.

Unlike some of the more cryptic modern watches coming out of Japan these days, the Seiko Discus is actually quite easy to read. A set of three numbered discs continuously rotate to display hours, minutes and seconds. The wheels are are partially masked by a frosted glass face with a clear glass window highlighting the current time. If you can’t figure that out, a tiny pair of green arrows on the glass make it even more obvious what time it is.

The Discus is part of Seiko’s Moving Image series, a line of automatic timepieces with decidedly contemporary styling. It’s available in two versions: one with a stainless body and white face, and another with a black metal body and a smoked glass face.

While the Discus is not officially for sale in North America, I was able to find a couple over on eBay, priced at about $890 each.

seiko epson creates hi-res e-ink display

technabob — Fri, 16 Nov 2007 03:33:44 +0000

This new electronic paper display from Seiko Epson crams an astounding 1600 x 1200 resolution into a 6.7-inch diagonal screen. That’s nearly 2-million pixels in a device that’s about the size of a letter-sized sheet of paper folded in half.

According to my rough math, the display cranks out over 230 pixels-per-inch, about 3 times that of the typical LCD computer screen. Perfect for use in electronic book readers, the flat panel measures in at just 3mm thick, and can display 1400 pages on a single button-cell battery.

While Seiko Epson hasn’t revealed any products which use the new display, it’s only a matter of time before we see these in real world devices.

[via MobileRead]