Wristwatches are an integral part of our dressing, and also help us plan our day to day activities, making sure we don’t miss meetings, gym, exams, parties etc. These days, a good looking watch speaks volumes about the wearer, because it’s one of the most noticeable accessories a person wears. We have seen smartwatches taking over the conventional analog watches gradually, due to a host of features smartwatches offer. To this end, Markus Bindhammer has committed to the design and production of his own, slimmed-down “smartwatch” called the MI/O, which looks quite different from conventional smart watches. We can visibly see the components it is made of. It features a Microchip ATmega328 MCU at its core, with its primary aim at functionality rather than fashion.
The MI/O functions by powering down the OLED display and ATmega, rather than dropping the controller into a low-power mode. Unlike other watch designs where the microcontroller is put into sleep mode, MI/O completely switches off everything except the RTC when the watch is not in use. This method of power control is remarkable, and effective, because there is a high level of difference between the lowest of power modes, and actual shutdown in almost entire MCU, so utilizing an external low-power mode of arranging things is ideal. When you turn the MI/O over, you find some extra functionality that enables you to input your own feature sets, with the MI/O acting as the core for any creations you have in mind.
Read more: MI/O- ATMEGA328 BASED SMART WATCH BY MARKUS BINDHAMMER
