MONTREAL - Investors have dug deep into their pockets so that others won’t have to reach into their own.
The cash has flowed from around the world to Montreal teenager Simon Tian, whose smartwatch aims to save people from rummaging through their pockets to retrieve their phones, an act he says people are forced to do about 150 times a day.
His Neptune Pine smartwatch is unlike other similar devices, as it is designed as a standalone product that doesn’t require another phone.
“You can basically do voice calls, text messaging, browse the internet, go on Facebook, Twitter, receive GPS navigation, all that without the presence of a nearby smartphone,” he said.
The 19-year-old, who quit CEGEP to work full time on the project, impressed investors so thoroughly that his product reached its goal of raising $100,000 in just 27 hours on the Kickstarter site.
While some might find the wristwear bulky, Tian predicts that such accessories will soon become commonplace.
"I think we're moving into an era where computers will be attached to the human body," he said.
The prototype was also the work of Aaron Wilkens, who Tian recruited off the internet.
“I saw an application on Craigslist. He was looking for someone who could design computer hardware,” said Aaron Wilkens of Neptune Computers.
Wilkens said that jamming a smartphone into such a small 2.4 inch space wasn’t simple.
“We have five different antennae in these watches and we need to make sure that none of them interfere with each other,” said Tian.
Tian and his crew expect to launch the device in late January.
