Cyborg Ring Blinks Tiny LEDs Across Your Finger

After initially calling it a “blink-ring,” Zach Fredin has come up with what he now dubs a “cyborg ring,” copying the general shape of his wedding band, but placing an array of LEDs in the raised upper portion. While it’s the kind of project that makes you wonder why you didn’t think to do that, if you dig a bit deeper into the design process, it took a huge amount of expertise to get it working.

The cordwood-style ring is powered by a pair of tiny size 10 Zn-air hearing aid batteries, and uses eight charlieplexed LEDs, along with what are described as “strange” 0508 resistors. Also unique is the PCB design, which he had to coordinate between two halves of the ring, sandwiching the LEDs and other components in between. An ATtiny85 chip is used to sequence the lights, which as shown in the GIF below, blink from one side to another.

Want to make a cyborg ring of your own? Lucky for you, Fredin has released the design files on GitHub and will be launching kits on Crowd Supply in the near future. More details can be found in his project log as well.