Potential Motorola smartwatch specs and features reveled in three new patent applications

Three new Motorola patent application published by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office reveal details about what a future Motorola smartwatch would offer users when it comes to specs and features.

Discovered by PatentBolt, the three patent applications – they’re yet to be awarded to Motorola – talk in great detail of a smartwatch device describing various features of such a gadget.

Like always with patent applications or awarded patents, we’ll tell you that the products described in the available documentation will not necessarily be made exactly as described. But it’s clear that Google is interested in such technology and wants to have all bases covered in the likely event that it will have to defend its intellectual property in courts. In fact, Google has a patent application for a smartwatch of its own.

In addition to Google, several other companies are rumored to be actively pursuing such smartwatch products including Apple, Microsoft and Samsung to name just a few of the most prominent names in the tech business. Other smartwatch design already exist with the Pebble being one such example. Not to mention that Motorola already dipped its toes in the smartwatch business with the MOTOACTV.

When going through the new patent applications you’ll notice that Motorola seems to have thought of everything. The smartwatch may not be just a companion device meant to be paired with a smarter gadget such as your smartphone or tablet, although it most certainly could be used as an accessory for a smarter device.

But the patent applications reveal that a Motorola-made smartwatch could include various advanced features including a wristwatch mode, desktop mode, health monitoring mode, clock mode, calendar mode, gaming mode, media player mode and others.

Unsurprisingly, the patents mention Android as a potential operating system for such a smartwatch.

When it comes to design, a Motorola smartwatch could be made from two different components, a strap and a “detachable electronic module” that would include the smart components of the watch and could be used independently from the strap.

In addition to expected components such as accelerometer, Wi-Fi, NFC, GPS, light sensor, infrared sensor and dual microphones, such a smartwatch would also pack a variety of wellness-related sensors that would allow it to register heart rate, pulse, body temperature and even skin moisture (the sensor would actually be able to tell the difference between skin moisture and moisture from external sources, like rain for example).

The device would store information in a medical profile and would be able to autonomously contact emergency numbers in cases in which the medical parameters it reads are outside of normal values.

Motorola even gives an interesting example in its patent applications, presenting a smartwatch wearer that has fainted during the robbery. The watch would be able to contact 911 after sensing that his “master” is not moving, and that before that happened he or she may have had a much higher heart rate and increased perspiration than in usual conditions.

Other interesting tidbits reveal that the display of such a device would rotate according to specific activities just like the display of a smartphone or tablet, and that the device would be able to detect when it’s covered by clothing in order to presumably save battery life.

Furthermore, depending what patent application you read, you’ll notice that the device could come with CDMA, GSM, UMTS and PTT support (either one of all), could pack an 800mAh battery (made of two 400mAh batteries) and 8GB of storage. An extra battery could also be found inside the strap.

Other mentioned specs include a Qualcomm Snapdragon MSM7630 processor (the kind of CPU that powered the HTCEVO Shift 4G) and a 1.6-inch OLED touchscreen display, which may be flexible or not.

Again, these aren’t the specs and features of a confirmed upcoming Motorola smartwatch, just examples mentioned in the three patent applications. The patents, filed on November 16, 2012, are yet to be awarded to Motorola.

With all that in mind, we’ll remind you that a source did tell us that Google would unveil a smartwatch soon – it was believed to arrive at Google I/O but obviously that didn’t happen – so it wouldn’t be completely unreasonable to expect a Motorola smartwatch to hit stores at some point in the near future.

While you wait, you can always check this particular Nexus smartwatch concept. Would you you purchase a Motorola smartwatch this year?