Home » Compare Smartwatches » Project Aria allows you to navigate your smartwatch with gestures

Each day that passes brings in tons of new innovations in the smartwatch industry. As you may already know, most watches which are available do offer quite a large number of features which can be accessed with the help of the incorporated touch screen.

Smartwatches are designed to make it easier for you to see your notifications and do minor actions without needing to take out your phone, but what happens when your hands are full, or when you cannot touch your watch’s display? Well, an exciting project known by the name of Aria aims to make things easier, thus making sure that you can access your smartwatch whenever you’d like, with the help of one-handed gestures.

Aria, which means ‘air’ in Italian, is basically a small device that can be attached onto your smartwatch that reads the gestures which you do with your hand by analysing and measuring wrist movement. You may not be aware of the fact that the smallest movement of your finger can be noticed in your wrist, so the device will allow you to control your watch with different commands such as flicking your finger, showing your first, or opening your palm. The moves vary, but most of these are quite repetitive, so don’t expect to make your watch work faster than it would by normally touching the screen. You also have the possibility to assign commands all by yourself and decide what each one does. If needed, you also have the freedom to control your phone, although the device has been designed for smartwatches principally.

The actual add-on device consists of a thin silicone remote that slips under the smartwatch band, right against your wrist. While it may sound a bit uncomfortable at first, this is certainly not the case here. In terms of its compatibility, the third-party device works with devices that operate with Android Wear, but also the Pebble Time. The software is also compatible with iOS, although it won’t currently work with the Apple Watch apps.

While I don’t see myself using something like this, as the possibility of controlling your watch when you don’t intend to is a little too big, there may be some that this device will appeal to, such as those who have their hands busy at all times, or those who are unfortunately left with only one hand and are looking for a way to control their watch.

Based on everything that has been outlined so far, what do you personally think about the Aria project? Do you see yourself attaching this accessory over to your smartwatch? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.