Asus smartwatch to feature natural UI with gesture and voice commands

Asus is all set to join the leading tech firms with its own wearable device, a smartwatch that is planned for a June launch at Computex 2014. The company in November 2013 announced its plans to enter the wearable segment, and now, Asus Chairman Jonney Shih has spoken about the upcoming device's interface at a recent event in Taiwan.

Speaking at a career event organised by the National Taiwan University, Shih said, "There would be more natural user interfaces such as voice or movement controls, although more breakthroughs are needed in these areas." The smartwatch will also feature "attractive" pricing.

Adding to this, Focus Taiwan reports the Asus smartwatch will feature a customisable gesture interface, and voice-commands. The proposed Asus smartwatch is said to complement smartphones, like the Sony SmartWatch 2 and Samsung Gear 2 and Gear 2 Neo. Shih is quoted by the publication to say the exploration of novel input interfaces is being explored due to the small screen size of the wearable device.

Other than a smartwatch, Asus is reportedly also working on the next Nexus tablet for Google, thought to be the Nexus 8. The tablet, expected to release with the latest version of Android, version 4.5, will supposedly hit shelves by the end of April.

It is being speculated that Google might be shifting away from the 7-inch form factor, because of the high competitiveness in the segment, which would be much less in the 8-inch bracket. Some of the popular 8-inch tablets in the market are Apple iPad Mini, Samsung Galaxy Note 8.0, Galaxy Tab Pro 8.4 and LG G Pad 8.3.