Apple patents the Smartring

Ok, we have laptops, tablets, smartphones and smartwatches. No denying that there is a trend going on here. And it looks like computers will soon be even smaller. Apple just applied to patent a "Ring Computing Device".

And it looks ... cute :)



Will this be the one ring to rule them all? Here is the patent application.

We took a look into it to find out if there are any surprises in there.

Our first impression: nothing too unexpected. It's mainly a ring with a touchscreen and all the other modules that you also would expect in a smartwatch. Including

• accelerometer
• camera
• microphone
• wireless charging

And just like a smartwatch, it is mainly intended to be a remote control for your phone. In contrast to a smartwatch, the ring can be operated with just one hand though.

What is interesting in the patent is the idea that the ring could detect what the user writes and thus be a new kind of input device.

It will be interesting to see if this patent is granted. There seem to be other players in this arena already.