Smart Watches are a new breed of watch,
built on Microsoft's SPOT technology,
that make use of personalized data being broadcast over MSN Direct channels from
local radio towers to your watch. This wide-area network currently reaches
about 80% of the North American population. The SPOT platform, or Smart Personal
Objects Technology, is an initiative to improve the functionality of everyday
things with a chipset which includes both an application chip as well as a
miniature radio receiver. The platform is optimized to draw very little
power, take up very little space, and come in at a low cost. The first SPOT
product family to arrive on the market was the Smart Watch and there are a number
of different manufactures that now make these devices, including Fossil,
Suunto and, the more recently announced, Swiss watch maker Tissot.
SPOT applications run on a subset of the Compact Framework. Currently C# is
the only language supported on the SPOT application chip and the development tool kit
required to target this platform has not yet been publicly released.
However,
if you are eager to get your hands on the tools, we know of one way that you
might become one of the select few to be the first to play. Microsoft is
holding a contest of sorts, by issuing an RFP (Request For Proposal).
Technically, it is not really a contest in the traditional sense; it is an open
bid submission process where individuals or companies can submit detailed
proposals on creative Smart Watch applications that they are willing to
develop. In early October, after evaluating the submissions and picking
the best, Microsoft will notify up to ten applicants and offer them the
opportunity to develop the winning application that they have submitted.
Submissions do require some work. First you need a good idea for a
Smart Watch app or Channel, as they call it, then you need to fill out the RFP
and sign off the rights to this good idea. You must provide a detailed
design proposal consisting of a 1-2 page description as well as a screen flow
chart and sample screen shots. You will also need to include a proposed
development and test schedule as well as a complete description of your
development experience.
If you are among the chosen few, Microsoft will hire you as an independent
contractor and pay you as much as $10,000 dollars to complete your proposed
solution by the November, 2004 target date. You will need to use C# and
the tools and emulator they provide to develop and test your code. You will be
required to meet milestones set out for you by Microsoft and do it all under NDA. Besides the cash, there are some other perks: you get your own Smart Watch and a year MSN Direct subscription, and
there are some marketing and PR spin-offs as well.
For more details, check out the Smart Watch RFP Program document available here.
You can also download the application and submission form here.
Good
luck!
For an overview of the SPOT CLR, there is an online PowerPoint presentation
from Microsoft Research that I found here.