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[on:]

So has everyone heard about the Shine already?
http://www.technationnews.com/2012/11/15/misfit-shine-activity-tracker-beautiful-design-weird-name/

Seems like a neat device, my style than substance really, but the wireless sync seems intriguing. Does anyone care to fathom a guess with me as to how it works?

Considering it would need to work with an iOS5 device it could work via Bluetooth and Wifi but the video says they use a proprietary communication technology. I thought it first it could be something to the Electric Imp which utilizes a light sensor and synchronized flashes as a pseudo-1-wire interface but the video seems to point at something that is bi-directional (it knew the location of the device on the screen). Even ultra-sonic sounds in the same vein could not do that.

Unless that was a total fabrication made just for the video how can it determine the position of such a device (encased in metal) with just the few sensors an iPhone would have. Perhaps it can read the current pixel it is over and send that back to the iPhone, but how, via Bluetooth? Considering the size of this thing and that it's battery is supposed to last 6 months that seems highly unlikely.

Thoughts?

[Reply #1 on:]

bluetooth - it talks about pairing and that is BT lingo for ... communicating

[Reply #2 on:]

Apparently, it isn't bluetooth. As it works on iPhones, it can't be NFC.

http://abcnews.go.com/Technology/misfit-shine-fitness-gadget-aspires-apples-hardware-software/story?id=17737467

[Reply #3 on:]

Ah, a nice riddle.

There's a lot of different ways of communicating.
Your phone uses a lot of them.
Most of them are one-way.
You have to put the unit on your screen i order to synchronize.

The phone has a speaker to communicate you're being called or sent a message (the speaker sounds a ringtone).
That is a one way communication mode.
The phone can show you what's going on by displaying a message on its screen, also one way communication.
You can touch the screen, interacting with its contents.
That is "1.7 way" communication, the touch part is way different from the display part yet combined they get close to 2 way communication.

As the device has to be placed on the screen, it is likely that is what it communicates with.
The device could recieve data by screenpixels and an optical sensor.
It could then interfere (disrupt) the capacitance and so emulate touching the capacitive touch screen.

This would need the user to initiate the sync on the phone (start the app), and the phone needs to be equipped with a capacitive touch screen (resistive touch needs actual force, capacitive doesn't).
This doesn't get you a high bandwith, but the amount of data to be moved for this type of device is quite moderate so this could just work fine.

So i guess this might be the way this works.