Google’s been thinking about a watch with a hole-punch camera

Image: USPTO / Google

A recently discovered patent suggests that Google was at one point experimenting with the idea of putting a camera slap bang in the middle of the face of a smartwatch. LetsGoDigital spotted the patent, which was filed back in July 2017, earlier this week. The patent is simply titled “Camera Watch,” and contains seven diagrams of the unreleased design.

There was a time when cameras were a much more regular feature in smartwatches. Samsung, for example, included a camera on both the Galaxy Gear and Gear 2 in 2013 and 2014 respectively. However, in recent years they’ve become less common. Apple has never included a camera on an Apple Watch (although a patent suggests that it once considered putting one into the watch’s band), and cameras...

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