Vodafone, Google look to extend Wear OS smartwatch battery life

By Paul Sandle

LONDON – Vodafone is working with Google to increase the battery lifetime of a smartwatch by decreasing the “chatter” between the system and the community, a much bigger drain of vitality than display brightness and different settings focused by low energy modes.

The cell operator has developed an API (utility programming interface) that allows apps and working methods, akin to Google Android’s Put on OS, to reconfigure how they impart with its community, Vodafone’s director of community structure Santiago Tenorio stated.

“With wearables, akin to smartwatches and different units, battery life is extremely necessary for our customers,” the businesses stated in a joint assertion on Thursday.

“That’s why Vodafone and Google’s Android crew are collaborating to optimise battery life on Put on OS by Google watches.”

Modifications akin to making the watch connect with the community intermittently as a substitute of regularly and releasing the channel by which it was transmitting extra rapidly had been examined, Tenorio stated.

Given the small dimension of battery in smartwatches, altering these parameters may prolong the lifetime of the system “very considerably”, he stated.

There was a value in efficiency however the API may save customers sufficient energy to final till the top of a future, he added.

The tech stems from Vodafone’s involvement in a 2017 challenge with elite runner Kenenisa Bekele to interrupt the two-hour marathon barrier.

The quantity of knowledge transmitted by sensors within the try drained a smartwatch battery in lower than an hour, Tenorio stated.

“Bekele was quick, however he wasn’t that quick,” he stated. “In a few years we had been in a position to prolong the (battery) life to a few and a half hours.”

The know-how may very well be accessible in Put on OS within the coming months, he stated, including that “many extra” wearables companions had been within the API.

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