Aina Is an AI-Enabled Smart Ring

The success of smartwatches and fitness trackers has already proven that there is a market for wearable devices. We live in a world where virtually everyone is carrying their smartphone with them at all times, but that doesn’t mean we actually want to take it out of our pocket or purse every time we need to get something done. Smartwatches give us quick and convenient access to many of our smartphone’s functions. But that idea can be pushed even further, which is the case with the AI-enabled Aina Ring wearable.

The Aina Ring is nearing the end of its Kickstarter campaign. It has already surpassed its funding goal, and there are just two days left to back the project yourself. Inside the small wearable ring there are a few important hardware components: an OLED touchscreen, a 6-axis motion sensor, a microphone, a Qualcomm SoC with Bluetooth capability, and a special “near field directional sound” (NFDS) speaker. That hardware may not seem particularly special, but it’s all the Aina Ring needs to do some pretty amazing things when it’s connected to your smartphone via Bluetooth.

You can interact with the Aina Ring using a combination of gestures and swipes across the touchscreen. An “artificially intelligent user interface” (AIUI) interprets those inputs to perform a huge variety of actions. You can control IoT devices, call an Uber, hold it up to your ear to take calls, talk to voice assistants like Amazon Alexa, make secure payments, control your music, flip through channels on your TV, and see your notifications. It will also act like a fitness tracker, just like a smartwatch. The 50mAh battery should be good for up to 36 hours of standby time.

The Aina Ring Kickstarter campaign will be running until July 16th at 12:30 PM EDT. There are a variety of finishes available, and super early birds can still get the “Texture Series” for $249. Rewards are expected to be delivered in February of 2020.