Samsung smartwatches might use external gestures in the future

Samsung is thinking up ways to make their smartwatch user interface more intuitive. New patents by the company show device-based gestures for performing quick smartwatch actions.

One such gesture has you pushing on the watch on one direction or another, with the patent application seemingly describing a scenario where different UIs or options may appear based on which direction you push it. Different actions presumably take place depending on which direction you pull it. It seems a bit clunky in theory as the watch would have to use a secondary strap to judge how far the watch was pushed, although this could also enable multiple levels of actions.

There are also gestures when the watch is not on your wrist, such as twisting or shaking the watch as it hangs from some stand to perform some action. Such functionality already exists on some phones, such as Motorola’s twist-to-wake-camera and chop-to-enable-flashlight.

But, as with all patents, there’s no guarantee we’ll ever see anything built based on this exact idea. We don’t have any issues with Samsung’s current smartwatch UI, but we’ll always welcome anything that makes it better.

[via Patently Mobile]