Last week, at MWC, ARM® partner Omate® announced their first standalone smartwatch designed especially for kids, with their brand-new Omate Wherecom K3. Featuring a 3G Dual-core 1GHz ARM Cortex®-A7 and an ARM Mali™-400 GPU, the K3 achieves the low power and area requirements essential for wearables whilst also delivering all the key features.
Designed for six to nine year olds, the K3 is a standalone smartwatch with 3G and Wi-Fi capabilities, a capacitive touchscreen with a child-friendly Wherecom user interface running on top of Android 5.1. In collaboration with security and location specialists Monitorlinq, the K3 incorporates GPS technology with communications features such as 3G and Wi-Fi hotspot usage to triangulate location for greater accuracy. This allows parents better-than-ever location services as well as instant communication options for the ultimate in peace of mind whenever the kids are away from home.
Laurent Le Pen, CEO of Omate, explained the reasoning behind Omate’s choice of ARM power for their devices:
ARM is an established name in processor IP and it made sense for us to complement the ARM Cortex A-7 with the Mali-400 GPU for the ease of integration between the products as well as unparalleled power saving features. Achieving a high quality user experience in the smallest area and with the best possible battery life was a key consideration for us and the Mali-400 helps us deliver that.
Mali has recently been recognised as the highest shipping GPU in the world and the Mali-400 is still ARM’s most licensed model. The combination of optimum power savings and silicon area efficiency of the Mali-400 GPU make it the ideal choice to suit the low power, low cost requirements of the wearables market.
The Mali family of GPUs is the most flexible and scalable on the market, ranging from the highly efficient Mali-400 up to the Mali-T880, the high power, high efficiency option for high end smartphones, tablets and DTVs. It’s not all about the GPU however, the combined Mali Multimedia Suite (MMS) of GPUs, video processors and display processors is pre-optimized to work better together and reduce time to market. The latest generation of ultra-low power Mali GPUs is well placed to continue the rise of high end wearables so stay tuned for the appearance of the Mali-470 in devices soon.
Launched off the back of a million dollar plus Kickstarter campaign back in 2013, Omate now has a whole range of smart wearables. From heavy duty sports watches like the recently released Omate Rise, to fashion conscious design styles like the feminine Lutetia, and now this addition of kids products, Omate really does have something for everyone. They even pioneered companion jewellery pieces; in collaboration with French fashion house Ungaro, which allow you to receive instant vibration alerts when your ‘favourite’ contact gets in touch. With such a fast growing range, and with the Omate Rise funded in just fifteen minutes on Indiegogo, this is a company to watch and one that ARM looks forward to working with in the future.