back to article Nod Labs forges one (Bluetooth) ring to rule them all

A team of engineers formerly from Google and Jawbone thinks it has cracked gesture recognition for electronics with a Bluetooth-equipped ring that can control cursor movements and manipulate household devices. Nod Labs Bluetooth ring The Nod sans cover The Nod is a somewhat bulky black ring of surgical steel with a …

COMMENTS

This topic is closed for new posts.
  1. FireWorks
    Thumb Down

    meh

    After seeing the video I think I'd prefer to use a "laser-pointer-like" stylus than wear a ring.

    1. DropBear

      Re: meh

      You... do realise you're in fact talking about a... wand? Hmmm, now I wonder if anyone registered "Ollivanders" yet....?

    2. ElReg!comments!Pierre

      Re: meh

      Agreed. The ring form-factor looks pretty impractical.

      I've tried a couple ways to control tech, and really nothing beats a proper keyboard; I use a small one with a built-in trackball, much better than a trackpad; I would not exchange it for this ring thing which incidentally is 10 times the price. A wand-like device? Perhaps, the wrist movements and the clicks would be much more natural. As long as you don't have to type text of course, unless there was some sort of 5-keys system à la wrobot on it, as virtual on-screen keyboard are all a bit shit (especially the move-the-pointer-and-click ones).

  2. Alistair
    Coat

    hmmm. Might be worth a look.

    I've never liked mice. -> trackballs and pointers (hate trackpads with a passion worse than mice) -

    Possibly as a remote pointer it makes sense. Wired up properly two of them could be a gaming rig. Might be worth a look.

  3. Barry Dingle

    An interesting idea

    quickly killed by its own price. Maybe the knockoffs will get that part right.

    1. Barry Dingle

      Re: An interesting idea

      Also, I'm afraid there are some things I do with my fingers that might cause "input errors".

    2. Mage Silver badge

      Re: An interesting idea

      yes, far more interesting than the NFC only ring the other day.

  4. Fazal Majid

    Dilbert foresaw this

    relevant comic strip here.

    1. Dan Paul

      Re: Dilbert foresaw this (Who'da thunk it)

      That's great, prior art in 1994!!

  5. POSitality
    Thumb Up

    How about one on each hand...

    ...beats holding digital nun-chucks! Imagine Wii Sports with these babies :)

    2014 *is* the year of wearables is it not?

  6. Tromos
    Joke

    And with two of these...

    ...one on each hand, you can zoom out using the famous 'angler' gesture.

  7. Anonymous Coward
    Anonymous Coward

    OOH!

    I'd like to finger one of those =)

    Allright, pass me my coat. Its the one with a middle finger on it.

  8. Gordon 10
    WTF?

    wft

    Why on earth has this got processors in it and running android? Shouldnt it be handing off the processing to a phone, and saving its power budget for the comms necessary?

    In other news I've been able to control other humans rather than technology almost since birth. My ring can clear a room in seconds.

    1. Anonymous Blowhard

      Re: wft

      I presume the processors are for processing the data from the accelerometers so that it can talk to the host device as a motion controller (e.g. emulating a PS3/4 remote) rather than being limited to only working with devices which can process the raw data from the motion sensors (i.e. custom designed to work with the ring).

      In which case using Android is a no-brainer as it is open source and already has the code for handling accelerometers.

      But I agree that battery life will be pretty crucial to its day-to-day usability.

  9. Caff

    harvest

    Hmm would be more interesting if they had developed a way to harvest enough energy to make it self powering.

    I do realise that most people would be able to charge it while sleeping but given your hand moves all the time and plenty of watches are able to harvest enough power to keep running it would be nice to think that a low power ring could too.

    1. Anonymous Coward
      Anonymous Coward

      Re: harvest

      It would certainly get powered-up if I wore one on my wanking hand.

      *fap fap fap*

      "What are you doing in there?"

      *fap fap fap*

      "Just charging up my ring"

  10. 27escape

    as a bluetooth 'button'

    it gets my vote, I would like a simple thing like this to control music on my phone or take a pic etc

  11. Damian Skeeles

    What an utter waste

    Ok - so I assume these developers are the ones Google and Jawbone didn't mind losing...

    They've got a great tech in the size and form factor, and yet they're showing complete lack of imagination in the UX. It's a new HID that needs a new UI.

    I want to be virtually flicking my finger through playlists and have it translate that to scroll forward/back gestures of varying range, yet they proudly display someone erratically waving around an onscreen keyboard. The Onion "MacBook Wheel" sums it up.

    As for text input needs - how about voice recognition/headset profile?

    Someone send them "Minority Report". On betamax.

This topic is closed for new posts.