There have been eleven smart rings that have hit the market in the past 5 years. A few of them are no longer on the market due to a lack of market acceptance. People do not seem to care to adopt connected technology a few years ago. However, as the push for paper-less work becomes incorporated in the work space one will find that smart rings can enhance your work flow. There have been especially good reviews for Ringly, a smart ring that notifies you when your phone is being contacted. The features are very specific to women to hide their phone in their purse (and are unable to feel it vibrating), but are also held to certain connected-ness obligations.
This July, at our 21st WT | Wearable Technologies Conference 2016 USA, we are featuring two smart ring speakers. Tonu Samuel, from 16 Labs, will speak on “An Approach to Smart Rings.” To learn how they are changing the WT Market, join our 1000+ international attendees by registering today.
The MOTA DOI smart ring is bring connectivity back to your fingertips. They are not the first to control other devices through a ring, however they were rated The Most Innovative Product as CES Asia this year. You can pre-order a ring today. It comes in white and black, with a removable + rechargeable battery. Unlike Ringly, it is unisex and features a screen instead of an LED. You can choose, of course, which social media sites, emails, SMS, or phone calls you with for it to notify you. It does not come with activity tracking – but perhaps this could be incorporated in their next generation. Their look is separated from costume jewelry by looking like a smart watch; even so, the look is not custom to individuals that are keen to fashion.
Have you ever had trouble connecting to Siri or OK Google in a loud place? Or needed to find you phone but had to way to call it? Why Not has created Aring Pro to solve these problems. It’s waterproof, so you can wash your hands without taking it off. Once it is connected to your phone, you can control your phone by simply speaking into Aring Pro. Seems pretty cool and sleeker than other rings– yet, there is no price point documented on their website.
Logbar Inc. was founded in 2013, and has been working to produce connected, innovative devices since then. They launched a successful Kickstarter a year later, in 2014, and have now released a second generation ring in combination with an SDK. This is great to involve developers to their hardware. Now we can see what changes may occur in the world of smart rings with more creators behind the scenes. Their ring, Ring ZERO, is a motion tracking typing sensor. They have a list of actions to better describe how to move your finger in order to accomplish specific tasks; such as, moving through a PowerPoint, texting, or listening to music: “One Gesture is All You Need.” But back to the style, it’s more of a smart watch downsized to your finger. I am not sure I am in love with the idea of more screens around my body. Even so, it is cool to see that they have opened up to further innovation in the future.
All in all, smart rings are a cool idea. The idea has been around since the beginning of Sci-Fi. It seems to be a consumer adoption problem at this point, as to why some companies are not able to remain influential players. Another con to smart rings, is the ability to be small and discrete on your fingers. There is still a long standing tradition of your wedding ring or natural gem stones as your statement ring. Wearing costume jewelry is not ideal for most situations – I am happy to see new generations appear with a fresher take on style than ever before.
