Lenovo Magic View Smartwatch and Smart Cast Smartphone concept

Lenovo at the Tech World keynote showed the concept ofthe  smartwatch and smart cast Magic View smartwatch is a stylish, round smartwatch reminiscent of the Moto 360 that seems from the concept renderings to be based around Android Wear. However, the uniqueness comes from what Lenovo is claiming makes it the only smartwatch with two screens.

Optical reflection is used inside of a portion of the strap in order to project a second “virtual interactive display” more than 20 times larger than the integrated display. This is made possible through Lenovo-designed silicon aimed at miniaturizing the components for this type of projection while maintaining the same performance.

Lenovo claims this secondary screen will be useful for things like maps, as well as photo and video viewing, but it be remains to be seen if users would favor a virtual display like this over simply using their existing smartphone display. Privacy is also a big part of what Lenovo is pitching with the Magic View. Since users must place the lens portion next to their eye, other people in the same area cannot look over their shoulders and view potientially sensitive information.

The Lenovo Smart Cast concept plays on a similar idea as the Magic View. Through the use of a build in laser projector, as well as specialized sensors, Lenovo aims at allowing users to project a large virtual touch screen onto tabletop surfaces.

With the use of infrared sensors, users can touch the surface underneath the projection and interact just as if it were a physical display. Lenovo points towards this being useful for such applications as virtual keyboards in productivity apps, or even for media control of projected movies and light gaming such as Fruit Ninja.

The phone has a laser projector, infrared motion detector and high-performance algorithms to offer a virtual projection. It has a hardware button that starts the cast. This can be used to project a large virtual touch screen onto a table to type with a virtual keyboard for better productivity since the projector can be rotated easily.  It also recognizes hand gestures, so users can cast a keyboard on a flat table and type away.

The Smart Cast can be rotated and the phone will detect the twisting action and automatically switch from table to wall view. At the back the phone has a Lenovo branding and loudspeaker grill at the bottom. Specifications of the phone are not known yet.

Source Lenovo