New human-machine interaction device

OZON. A story about ring, what controls all mobile devices

At the latest South by Southwest festival of of original music, independent films, and emerging Technologies there was a small ring in Sony Future Labs exhibition box. It looks at first like nothing special – maybe just too simple, too robust finger-wearable jewelry. But from inside, it may be the next great pointing device for our computers after mouse. And it includes some great challenges for electronics engineers to solve.

Smartphones, laptops and tablets are usual for us, smartwatches will grow on market and they all need control and interaction by some way. Usually it´s touchscreen and we can knock or swipe thru different menus and selections to control our units. With mobile devices it´s not comfortable all the time. Our hands are busy with driving, cooking, manipulating machines or doing something else. We can´t touch screens all the time.

Japanese company 16Lab have done a lot of research and development to build a ring, what includes a lot of sophisticated electronics and features to do control of our everyday mobile devices. It´s challenging, because rings are very tiny things. But Japanese electronics industry is great master fitting a lot of electronics to some very small devices.

CTO of 16Lab Tõnu Samuel is Estonian IT professional and robotics specialist, who moved to Japan some years ago. Samuel is engineer behind solutions what needed for fitting battery, radio transmitters, sensors and electronics to a single ring.

In the video (left), Samuel introduces how OZON ring changes our interaction with computers and devices, how it is done and why it´s so challenging to develop it.

One of the greatest challenges, said Samuel, was finding a curved battery powerful enough to serve a ring without charging week or more. First prototype cost the amount of average car.  Energy consumption must be minimal, but planned functions all need some power: Bluetooth for connecting smartphone or laptop, “touch screen” for control and NFC for contactless payment. There are some other functions inside the ring, too.

First prototype was too huge, looking as not normal ring but much fatter. It´s more than 30% smaller now comparing to first prototype. You can use it as smart mouse or pointing device to control different devices. And there are a lot compatible devices to control, because 16Lab developed the ring for recognize as usual standard mouse. No special software or driver needed. So, You can even point to smart TV-s or computers. Clicking is solved by touching a side of the ring. Part of ring´s surface is touch-sensitive.

Connecting to ring is solved by NFC – only a touch can connect smart ring to a smart device. If You use it with smartphone, vibrating alarm can notify about received messages and other notifications discreetly.

OZON ring supports Android, iOS, Mac and Windows PC-s, but it is possible to connect it with any devices.

“Our main goal is to develop OZON ring to support all devices with no need for special software and installation,” explains Tõnu Samuel. “You just connect and use it.”.

Ring can be activated by hand gesture: “turning a key to open door”. And then magic begins. In the near future, OZON ring is usable as contactless paying device what is much more convenient than mobile phone or plastic cards when shopping.

Yamaha, Toyota and Sony are most famous technology companies who are already interested in that smart ring. Tõnu Samuel says that there is still a lot of work to do in development. OZON ring must look better, must be even more smaller, more sensitive and less expensive.

Here You can see how Tõnu Samuel demonstrates a smart ring with his phone visiting Tallinn.