The wearable tech industry is booming. Music players have enjoyed their heyday, as have smartphones. As the tech industry continues to evolve, so too does the affinity of users for which type of devices they prefer. While some companies like Pebble and Samsung are trying to revolutionize the smartwatch, and squeeze all of the amenities afforded by smartphones into them, the people over at Blanc are taking the opposite route, outfitting their smart watches with a single purpose.

And by “the people” over at Blanc, we mean the high schoolers and college students that comprise the company.

Blanc is a Cambridge-based tech startup that produces a variety of smartwatches, each with a specialized function. The first device they’ve created is called Spark, a watch that tells time but also moonlights as an alarm to keep you from falling asleep in class, at your desk or any other place that’s not your bed.

BostInno spoke with Blanc founder Eddy Zhong to find out what it’s like for a high school student to throw his hat in to disrupt a blossoming industry, and how a device without all the mainstream gimmicks is more effective and efficient than the rest.

“We saw that all of these companies were making these watches for $300,” Zhong told BostInno over the phone. “We didn’t see the potential for putting everything on these smartphones into a smartwatch. We build smartwatches that solve just one problem, and keep it specialized. It keeps costs low, so the people we’re targeting can afford it.”

Though only a junior in high school, Zhong is already an accomplished entrepreneur. Having taken part in various hackathons and networking events, he met his constituent teammates at an entrepreneurship program put on by the New England Chinese Information & Networking Association. NECINA hosts young entrepreneur business competitions, and after connecting with the bulk of his team at one of them, he decided to start a company.

The seed for Blanc was planted, though, when Zhong noticed just how many of his classmates were falling asleep in school. In fact, one of his best friends snoozed his way though a substantial chunk of the SAT. Needless to say, things didn’t go well for that pal.

“Whenever I walk into a classroom at my school, there’s always three to four people asleep,” added Zhong.

Zhong’s anecdote is certainly chuckle-worthy, but it also poses an interesting point about Blanc’s target audience. The company isn’t just looking to sell to the lethargic teen crowd; rather, they want to engage those who not only care about learning, but stay up late losing sleep to finish homework and other applicable scholastic or professional endeavors.

Spark works by measuring motion frequency. It has two modes the user can set: time mode, which functions like a typical watch; and spark mode. When turned on, spark mode will start to monitor the user’s movements based upon personal movement patterns. It then pushes the data through an algorithm that is able to detect whether or not a user is dozing off or wide awake.

But, every user, of course, has his or her own respective motion. Some are active, others are more sedentary. Some have restless leg syndrome, others wallow around. What’s great about Spark is that it monitors the unique motion of the user and calculates an average motion frequency to differentiate between falling asleep and natural movement.

The biggest issue Zhong faces in trying to get Blanc off the ground and Spark on peoples’ wrists has nothing to do with the technology. He founded the company and even set up a manufacturing line in Taiwan. The two motion sensors within the device are accurate, the LED display is in full color, and the team is even working on making the wristband more customizable by adding green,red and blue colors to its arsenal.

For Zhong, the most significant obstacle is being taken seriously in Boston’s fast-paced, perpetually reinvented tech landscape. Explained Zhong:

Sometimes when we meet people, it’s very hard to get a conversation in because they don’t take us seriously. Part of that is because we’re students. But once they see you have a real product, they do take you seriously. We go to work every week at the Cambridge Innovation Center and half the startups don’t have a product they’re working on. We’ve been going to Venture Cafe for a few weeks now and we know a lot of people there.

Now that he’s gained acceptance and proven himself worthy to join the ranks of Greater Boston’s tech elite, Zhong and his team are already looking ahead to the future. The Wall Street Journal, Zhong tells us, estimated the wearable tech industry to be valued at $1 billion for 2013 and will proliferate to $2.5 billion by 2016. Boston-based Accenture, though, thinks the market will be worth as much as $8 billion by 2018.

Blanc’s next venture will look to capitalize on the success of Snapchat using the next-generation watch’s dual lenses. “All the app does is take photos and instantly send them to your friends,” says Zhong. “Just press a button, choose the front facing camera side-facing camera, or do both” and send the snap along to your friends.

This, Zhong tells us in closing, is how the wearable tech industry should go; not where the smartphone has gone, rendering little-to-no social interaction, but rather paving a different path.

To Zhong’s credit, many of us could look out the window during the day, and see peoples’ faces buried in their phones. Blanc aims to solve a single problem and function in a single way, while bucking the trend of gadgets that results in alienation.

Middle image via Madeline Bilis/Telegram & Gazette