According to reports, a contest has been launched by NASA with the purpose to design a smart watch app interface that will be used by astronauts on the International Space Station (ISS). The price money is almost symbolic, at only $1,500. Perhaps nobody will be entering NASA's contest for the money, but for some pride and fame.
According to NASA, the app has the purpose of a general user interface for smart watch apps aboard the ISS. However, it will include a lot of different functions and features: a "Cautions and Warnings" app; a "Crew Timeline" app for astronauts' agendas; a timer for "procedures until next activity"; and an app to check the communications status with Earth.
The user interface (UI) will be designed for a single app (as a PNG or JPEG) that covers all the functions but not the apps themselves. Probably NASA is planning to do that later on. Astronauts currently receive warnings and other info from iPads and laptops. With a smart watch app, NASA is hoping to give that info more quickly.
Another requirement for app designers is asking to ensure they provide appropriate feedback for actions, direct attention to the appropriate info for a task and data be clear displayed on the smaller Samsung Gear screen. The Space Agency also added that they highly encourage innovative representations data displayed on a smart watch screen.
It is odd why NASA has chosen the hardware from Samsung's Gear 2 smartwatch, rather than some superior models like the Samsung Gear Live, Apple Watch or the Smartwatch 3. But it is true that by all means Samsung Gear 2's design is leaped forward from the Omega Speedmaster models of the early Apollo program.
Since the early stages of the American Space Program, there have been watches accompanying the astronauts in space. On June 3, 1965, Ed White was the first American to "walk" in space and he was wearing on his wrist an Omega Speedmaster. Now, in the age of the smartwatch, is only normal that astronauts will wear something new on their wrists.
A space-faring smart watch could provide more than the counter functions and the stopwatch of the manual-wind Speedmaster. The invitation to participate to the app design contest was posted by NASA to Freelancer.
