ORII ring puts your smartphone on your finger

As the song goes, if you like your smartphone you should put a ring on it. In a sense, ORII does that, but in the opposite direction. It practically puts your smartphone in a ring that, in turn, you do put on your finger. But this is no Bluetooth controller for your smartphone. This is, instead, a Bluetooth "headset" you wear on your finger that lets you take and make calls by simply placing your finger on your ear. And, yes, you'll look crazy while doing so.

The technology actually isn't new, but it's not entirely widespread either. Bone conduction technology is mostly used by specialized audio and hearing devices but rarely in consumer products until recently. And it is exactly that technology that ORII is trying to put and sell in a rather large ring.

What is the advantage of using bone conduction versus traditional speakers? There are two, according to ORII. First is privacy. Since bone conduction sends audio waves directly to your ears, you're the only one that can hear that call (though others will, of course, still hear you talk). The second is that you will be able to hear those calls even in loud environments.

ORII, however, isn't just a glorified, hi-tech voice call speaker. It can also control your smartphone. But only through voice, of course. In practice, that really means talking to Siri or Google Assistant and being limited to what those assistants can do for you without touching your phone. If only it also worked with Bixby, then we'd get talking. Literally.

As you can imagine, this isn't a kind of product that might make it big in the market, which is why ORII is taking baby steps, first on Kickstarter. It still have about three weeks to go, but it has raised more than six times its very modest funding goal. Presuming all things go well, it should ship to backers by February.

VIA: Kickstarter