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On 30 October 2014, the YouTube account Cicret App & Bracelet published a video titled The Cicret Bracelet: Like a tablet ... but on your skin. The video's description outlined Cicret's functionality thusly: The clip showcased some impressive technology that eliminates a number of inconveniences experienced by smartphone users: The Cicret Bracelet enables submersion in water (as evidenced by a portion of the video's taking place in a bathtub) and, as described by ZDNet, allows users to enjoy device functionality even when their handsets are out of reach: The Cicret App and Bracelet was lauded by tech bloggers as the next stage of smartphone connectivity, and videos and articles about it were widely shared on social media sites. But if your first impression was the device looked like something out of science fiction, you weren't entirely wrong. A number of skeptical users had some pointed questions about the Cicret claims, and among the more logical queries (such as how the device might work for people with dark skin or abundant arm hair) was a far more central mystery: does the Cicret bracelet actually exist? Viewers of the video were quick to notice the device as shown appeared to have been cobbled together from recognizable existing products. Some observed extant advances don't allow for such capabilities to be contained within a device as small as the one depicted, and others noted the projection quality seemed remarkably high. As it turned out, the Cicret bracelet did not actually exist, and no working prototype of it had yet produced. In a 5 December 2014 report from Washington television station WTOP, Cicret co-creator Guillaume Pommier reluctantly confirmed the impressive video produced was a mockup not representative of any functional prototype device: That report highlighted additional areas of concern about the project, specifically a lack of transparency and the anonymity of its creators: Cicret has since addressed some of those concerns, adding a physical address and a listing of their team member's names, photos, job titles, and e-mail addresses to their web site, and producing a video that purports to show a (decidedly less visually impressive) functioning prototype of their virtual bracelet that works with all skin colors: Although the Cicret bracelet and app may not be impossible to develop with current technology, it's also not a device that actually exists at this stage. While an eventual working Cicret could one day be real, it's also possible the concept will graduate to the realm of vaporware.
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