Skin deep tech: Cicret bracelet aims to turn your arm into 'new tablet'

Reading emails on your skin may sound wacky, but not for the French designers working on a bracelet that projects your smartphone content onto your arm. To turn the surreal Cicret device into reality, the designers are seeking funding.

A video explaining how the device works has gone viral, racking up 4,222,427 views on YouTube at the time of this article’s publication. The Cicret website says the designers are still working on the prototype of the waterproof bracelet that promises to "make your skin your new tablet."

"Don’t trust any website selling it yet," they warn.

The Cicret, activated with a twist of the wrist, is equipped with an embedded memory card, processor, accelerometer, micro USB port, Wi-Fi and Bluetooth. But the key part is the so-called "pico-projector" and an array of proximity sensors. The pico projector projects the interface onto your arm. When you put your finger on the interface, you stop one of eight proximity sensors. The sensor sends the information back to the processor in your Circet bracelet.

"Read your mails, play your favorite games, answer your calls, check the weather, find your way…Do whatever you want on your arm," they promise.

The idea has drawn its fair share of criticism, as there is no working prototype and no solid guarantees that it will actually be realized.

The inventors say they need €700,000 to finish the first prototype of the bracelet and €300,000 to develop the Cicret App for all platforms. If their crowdsourcing proves successful, the Cicret bracelet is planned to be available in 10 colors and two drive sizes - 16 and 32 GB.

Cicret co-founder, Guillaume Pommier, told Gizmag that the company expects to have the bracelet, conceived a year ago and designed over the course of six months, on the market in about 18 months, with a price tag of up to $400. The first prototype should be ready by late December.