Samsung is thinking about a Galaxy Watch with a projector

We’ve already seen smartphones with projectors before, such as the Galaxy Beam series. Now, new evidence suggests Samsung is working on a smartwatch with a projector.

A patent filed with the US Patent and Trademark Office and spotted by Wareable (h/t: GSMArena) shows a Samsung smartwatch with a projector on-board. However, this isn’t feature isn’t meant for watching movies on a wall, as the image below shows.

Images in the filing show users being able to project images from the watch to the back of their hand. The image above shows the entire watch display projected on a user’s hand, allowing them to more easily see the time and their heart-rate.

Samsung also mentions a few other projection capabilities in the filing. These functions include being able to display info that differs from the watch screen, and being able to project video content.

The ability to project watch content onto a larger area could indeed be handy in some situations, such as when you’re exercising and need to quickly see information at a glance. It could also be handy for times when you need to see more info than the watch screen can show, such as a grocery list, text messages, or more detailed fitness tracking features.

We’re also keen to see video-related uses for this tech. Holding your arm in this pose could get tiresome if you’re watching a TV show or movie, but this could be handy (heh) for short video content, video messages, or brief video calls. This concept could also theoretically open the door to smaller wearable designs, allowing manufacturers to shrink or drop the screen altogether in favor of a projection.

Of course, it goes without saying that this is merely a patent, so there’s no guarantee we’ll see a Galaxy Watch with a projector in the future. Still, it does show that Samsung is thinking about projection tech on watches in the first place. So don’t be surprised if a Galaxy Watch Beam arrives down the line.