Wearables

Ö smart ring tells you the time, alerts you to messages and more

posted by Alan F. / Jan 01, 2015, 9:08 PM

Ö smart ring tells you the time, alerts you to messages and more

How would you like to wear a smart device on your finger? Kevin Bates, creator of the Ö ring, wanted to see how small he could make the technology necessary for this Bluetooth connected smart ring. Sporting a 64 x 32 resolution monochrome OLED display, the ring includes a rechargeable 40mAh battery that will give you 4 hours of use before requiring a charge. A 16MHz processor drives the device.

Production of the Ö ring will start sometime this year. With the ring you will be able to "Receive and reply to notifications from your cell phone! Display fun animations at a party!"

"I made this just to see how small I could get the technology. I became inspired after seeing several crowdfunding campaigns for smart rings become hugely successful. I wanted to see if it was possible to develop a technology more advanced than what they had displayed in their promotional materials. In general, I think people should be more skeptical of hardware crowdfunding and demand to see more behind the scenes operation of the underlying technology"-Kevin Bates, creator, Ö ring

Bates hasn't revealed a price yet, probably because he is still running through quotes from manufacturers. We do have a video though, showing the Ö ring in action. Check it out and let us know if you think that there is a place in your life for a smart device worn around your finger.

source: Arduboy via Gizmodo

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16 Comments

1. fzacek

Posts: 2486; Member since: Jan 26, 2014

40mAh battery?...

posted on Jan 01, 2015, 9:36 PM 0

2. vuyonc

Posts: 1090; Member since: Feb 24, 2014

If the display encompassed the whole ring and had the iconic LotR Elven engraving as an animation, I'd respect that. Not buy it, but certainly respect it.

posted on Jan 01, 2015, 10:13 PM 0

9. tedkord

Posts: 17357; Member since: Jun 17, 2009

I'd need it to create solid light constructs powered by my will.

posted on Jan 02, 2015, 8:03 AM 0

3. hurrycanger

Posts: 1761; Member since: Dec 01, 2013

lol... Lord of the Rings.

posted on Jan 01, 2015, 11:17 PM 5

4. Leo_MC

Posts: 7432; Member since: Dec 02, 2011

Etiquette allows men to wear watches, cufflinks, tie clasp, wedding/class rings. That's it. There's no social situation where a man can get away with wearing that (so far) ugly piece of cr... technology.

posted on Jan 02, 2015, 12:26 AM 1

5. kent-gaga

Posts: 609; Member since: Apr 10, 2012

real men wear anything he wants in fact anyone can wear anything they want in public unless it's offending someone else directly anyway you can keep your small-minded thinking to yourself but please, you dont need to post it here smh

posted on Jan 02, 2015, 12:55 AM 1

7. Leo_MC

Far from me to say men are not allowed to wear what they want; for instance clowns can wear abusive makeup, gymnasts can wear tights, transvestits can wear women dresses etc; everybody can wear everything, including clothes that are offending other people, as long as it is legal to wear them (for instance, my eyes would be offended to see a man wearing thong at the pool but I would have no problem as he would have the right to do that). I wasn't talking about that, I was talking about etiquette. You can't be expecting me to accept a man dressed like a clown to a black tie event... because a men, wearing this ring with a tux, would be no different from a clown.

posted on Jan 02, 2015, 2:37 AM 0

6. iMemo

Posts: 113; Member since: Feb 22, 2014

People are running outta ideas! -_- Smart ring...?!!! Like what the heck! "Oh, dude...what's that ugly thing on your finger?" "Oh, this...? Its a smart ring bro... It does almost exactly what my smartwatch does but a lot more crappy."

posted on Jan 02, 2015, 1:09 AM 0

14. cheetah2k

Posts: 2256; Member since: Jan 16, 2011

Nek minit Apple releases the iRing.... Bwahahahaha

posted on Jan 02, 2015, 5:42 PM 0

8. ArtSim98

Posts: 3535; Member since: Dec 21, 2012

XDDDDDD LOOKS SO STUPID AND WTF 4 HOURS BATTERY LIFE :DDDD

posted on Jan 02, 2015, 4:17 AM 1

10. VZWuser76

Posts: 4974; Member since: Mar 04, 2010

Where's the big candy jewel to suck on?

posted on Jan 02, 2015, 9:26 AM 1

11. PorkyBurger

Posts: 585; Member since: May 18, 2013

Wow, I cannot believe that people can be so harsh on this. Come on, at least give that man some credit, he probably worked hard for this. It is so easy to say bad about others work, but think, if you would be him, wouldn't you feel terrible after reading this comment section? Pretty lame from you guys. :(

posted on Jan 02, 2015, 9:55 AM 1

15. cheetah2k

100% agree. 99.9% of the people commenting here have no idea what is involved with prototyping and tooling... I think its a great proto, it can only get way better from this