A Smart ring created by Origami Labs allows users to make and receive calls directly on their finger.
Ever thought about the idea of being able to take calls from your smartphone using just your finger? Well, Bluetooth headsets do help in avoiding the hassle that comes with taking the Phone out of pocket every time there’s a call. But even so, these start to become uncomfortable when they are glued to the ears for a long time. So what if there’s something as simple as a ring placed on a finger which lets you take and receive calls?
Origami Labs, a startup on the Kickstarter platform has made a Ring that fits into your finger and lets you receive calls and even speak to the voice assistant services like Google Assistant and Siri just through a touch on the ear. This has been made possible with the use of Bone Conduction Technology, a tech which sends voice through vibrations caused on the finger where the Smart Ring is placed, which allows the user to hear audio right through a finger. This is not the first time such a tech has been used. Bone Conduction has been in constant use in medical devices such as hearing aids for a long time now.
How does it work?
Using Bone conduction, the sound is sent to the finger where the ring is placed. Then the sound is transferred to the ear when the finger comes in contact with it. While Bone Conduction covers the listening aspects. The voice of the user is received through dual noise-cancelling microphones present on the ring which ensures that there’s great quality in phone calls. Voice assistants present on smartphones such as Siri or Google Assistant can be enabled and used with a long-press of a button on the ring. Through the use of voice assistants, the ability to set alarms, reminders, making calls and sending messages gets taken to a whole new level with the ORII Smart Ring.
Features
Being able to make and receive calls and messages and the ability to work with Personal assistant services on smartphones is one thing. But being able to do most of this work without having someone hear everything from the device is what makes the Smart Ring unique. The unique implementation of bone conduction makes the sound totally undetectable to everyone except the user. This would be an ideal device for those secret talks or for spying on someone. Moreover, the bone conduction also allows the user to hear calls from the other end even in crowded or noisy environments. Another interesting feature is the presence of a notification light which could be set to display different colors according to notifications from various apps on the smartphone. The preferences for this feature could be done from the ORII App through an Android or iOS device.
Coming to the build quality, the Smart Ring is splash-proof and comes with an IPX7 rating. Powering this device is a tiny 50mAh Battery which can provide up to 45 hours of standby time. The talk-time though is a bit disappointing. At a talk-time of just 1 hour, there isn’t much too much talking to be done with the ORII Smart Ring.
So is it a decent replacement for Bluetooth headsets?
No. As of now, it’s just an alternative to them. But the ORII Smart Ring cannot be better than any conventional Bluetooth headsets as they offer much better battery life. Also, purchasing the Smart Ring might likely drill a hole into your pocket as it would cost over $99. But considering its key advantages, such as being able to take and receive calls wirelessly and at the touch of a finger on the ear, and getting a crisp and clear audio quality out of conversations even in noisy environments, adding with that the ability to make better use out of smartphone voice assistance. This would be a great gadget for those looking to use it for short voice calls and for minor use of Smartphone voice assists.
Such a technology takes us a step closer to a future where people would use their smartphone screens much less than ever before, and use wearable devices for most purposes such as calling, voice messaging or fitness tracking. This project from Origami Labs has been given a lot of importance as it has already surpassed its funding goal of $30,000 with 24 days remaining at the time of writing.