LCD Watch Design with Ultrasonic Distance Meter

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Design submitted by Sam from Germany.

Sam transferred the “neck bones” of a crash test dummy and the recognizable camera marker to this wrist watch. The display is a derivation of the before mentioned camera marker.

There are three analog watch hands for hours, minutes and seconds and a dial in the same colors. The glass plate on the display carries an LCD display. It is normally off and with the push of a button, it lets your see the date or use a stop watch. To perfect the crash test theme, Sam thought about according sensory. In the end, he decided for an ultrasonic distance meter. This gives the wearer the opportunity to measure the distance of objects as well as calculating their velocity when moving towards of away from the wearer. The distance meter data is also shown on the LCD display.

The distance meter works as follows: The sensory, which is placed above the strap and pointing away from the wearer, emits ultrasonic waves and the internal stop watch gets started. The ultrasonic waves sooner or later hit an object and get reflected by it. The reflected waves reach the sensory again and the stop watch stops. The resulting time multiplied with the sound velocity and then divided by 2 results to the passed distance (d=vt/2). As long as the wearer holds the button, this process gets repeated in a high frequency and the data becomes more accurate. The zero point of the measurement can be set individually (let it be center of the watch or your wrists outer face for example). If the object is moving towards the wearer or away from him/her, the distance difference in a certain time gets measured and the velocity gets calculated (v=Δd/t).

With a proper software, the wearer can also calculate the speed of the car he/she is in for example (using the tachometer principle of a known distance combined with the stop watch) or the distance of a thunder storm (using the stop watch and automatically multiplying the time between flash and thunder with sonic velocity)/ Or one can calculate the average walking speed in a known distance and extrapolate the necessary time for future walks.

This watch design is a combination of a geeky and extrovert watch. There are some different colored straps to appeal to a wider range of people. It is a watch with a high value of recognition and a clever usage.

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26 thoughts on “LCD Watch Design with Ultrasonic Distance Meter”

  1. I think this is a clever design, but I don’t think it has a practical appeal to a very wide audience. I did not vote on the star rating because it is just not for me. Very creative, however and excellent rendering as always Sam.

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    • i do think that the silver strap and the black strap will appeal to a wider audience, but that yellow is just TOO eye-catching for me – even just on the face. i guess it’s just that i’m not the “extrovert” that this was designed for….I sure am geeky though 😉

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  2. Ah, Sam…I was also thinking about a rangefinder watch, but I think yours is more exciting. Analog + LCD is very nice. Rangefinder is an interesting tool to build into a watch, because it’s often needed unexpectedly. The silver strap would be the most wearable for me, but the yellow strap does look great. The strap looks very comfortable, by the way. My initial reaction: this is a perfect watch for a superhero (e.g., Batman).

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  3. Hello Sam, a watch functional and useful for people focused?
    Your work is very beautiful and imagination is great.
    The ingenuity is there, so 5 * / Yes, no probleme!

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  4. Wow this is a coloruful design! I like the ridges in the strap and the overall shape is pleasing. I like the style of the face and combination of digital and anologue. The distance meter could be useful but sound complicated. For me its a bit colourful, even the metal or black is still a bit bright. If you did a monochrome or grey and black version id be sold. 5* and Yes (based on a monochrome version)

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  5. Thank you people, for your comments so far! Please be honest 🙂 I liked maths and physics in school (GEEEEEEEK) and I always dreamt of a little information tool on my wrist.

    Heather, yes totally comprehensible. If one doesn’t fall in love with the crashtest dummy theme instantly, it’s not a watch for him/her. The yellow has his eye-catchiness from the camera-catchiness of it’s original purpose. Another used contrast is black and white…

    Everybody, check this for all pictures including colorless versions.

    Logan, so our minds do really share some brainwaves 😉 I also think, a rangefinder is quite practical in some situations. If you have one, more situations will come up. Oh yes, Tim Burton’s Batman with the yellow-black batlogo could have used that 🙂

    Patrick, I tried to create a recognizeable watch with a serious function. Not everybody’s taste, but it’s fun 🙂

    Pete, yeah I imagine, you wear it with a dark top with long sleves and every time the sleve gets pulles up a bit, the high contrast marke gets seen by the world, hehehe. I agree, a monochrome version might look more tame and adapted to the technical inner values.

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  6. i love this. love the yellow and black thing. would like to see a watch inspired by aliens power loader. “If its not a Ripley’s then its game over!”

    do see much practical use for distance other than telling your friends that you were literally 1.4 meters from the dj. maybe some sort of deceleration value for when performing an epic fail into a wall from a skateboard.

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    • Ahahaha that made my day xD Yeah, looking at the watch, reading “Oh intersting, 35km/h” and then seeing that wall coming too late is tough. Mh… but maybe a more outdoor-ish watch case that can stand hard collisions would be the solution. As for the guy, helmet ftw.

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  8. This watch is cool on so many levels, the ultrasonic sensor could be used while fighting with the predator! if he is near…we shall find him! and the display is epic, i love designs that have futuristic patterns with simple easy to read time telling! i would buy this anyday hehe

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  10. Very interesting concept Sam, the “high vis” looks very industrial so I expect it would be suited to engineers and surveyors. (i would say builders but every builder I know only craves for designer watch brands) I currently use a laser measuring device when surveying buildings so could be useful there but not sure if the strap would create innacuracies? but altogether a very successful design. I wonder how long it will be before smart phones have this measuring feature..

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    • Thanks for your thought Keiron!

      Hm, bringing it from the “it’s interesting”-level to the “we need it precisely”-level, I suggest a manual zero-point adjustment. So 0 can be in the case center (adding an indicator to the outside lets you place the watch accurately) or at the outer edge, where the sensor is. Maybe a strap release button would be wise, so the watch can be used more accurately. Oh yeah, I also thought about what smart phones already have, we didn’t even dream of years ago.

      Oh successful, hehehe. 3.3 is pretty… neutral 😉

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    • Why thank you Rob! That could be a budget variant. I will dig out my early sensor-free concepts and post them on my page (click my yellow name). I like the idea.

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  12. Great design for the analogue, but simply too much other stuff added in for my liking… I’d prefer just a watch…

    Having said that, this looks great

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    • Comprehensible point. Convincing actually. It’s cool you prefer just a watch. When I made the watch, I felt a certain need for some sensory, and this one felt perfect.

      Thanks Bruce!

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  13. A good stuff to play around with. Useful to keep track distance between my boss and I, and most probably useful for blind or dim individual (if it can beep). I like the minimal but sleek design, it fulfills my taste. The designer is surely has a good sense of art, trend and ergonomic. Oh I almost forgot that this is a watch design. As for watch part, quite okay interesting, and. Why not grab it if I could.

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  14. I have worked with sonar distance sensors before and I can tell you this will never work. There are always reflections from other objects, and the sound received by the sensor varies by the millisecond. Your distance reading will fluctuate wildly. Assuming that you were able to hold it still for a number of seconds and the watch could take an average reading, it would probably be highly inaccurate. Another problem is the size of the sonar emitter. Take a look at the MaxBotiX ultrasonic sensor to get an idea of the size of a typical sensor: http://www.maxbotix.com/ It would simply be too big for a watch. These sensors are simply not accurate.

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  15. I don’t see the practical use of a distance meter actually. If you ask me, it can go. It seems a bit like you needed to add a gimmick for some reason. The watch looks cool. I like the color scheme. Even it it were without the LCD panel, it would still be a solid design with some nice details.

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  16. weird, one gets added another goes off, kinda poetic!
    This wasn’t my favorite of your designs but was still outstanding quality! best of luck for this entry! 🙂

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    • Thank you Pete 🙂

      Thank you everyone, who left love and comprehensible critics. Sometimes a cool geometry is enough, sometimes a gimmick makes a watch. I like to try out everything 🙂

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