Fujitsu doesn’t have a golden record of fantastic products, but they are one of the best innovators of cutting edge tech, and it looks like the company might have a wearable winner on its hands.
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The Japanese company has developed a “ring-type” device capable of text input using just a single finger, which could point (ahem) to new ways of controlling our wearable devices, such as smartwatches and of course, VR headsets.
The ring can detect letters written in the air, turning you into a modern day and more useful version of ET, enabling you to write out messages or just control on screen commands with a swish of your digit.
The ring itself uses a bunch of sensors to work its magic, mixing accelerometers, gyroscopes and magnetometers together to create a device capable of 95% accuracy – even using Chinese characters. What’s more, because of the difficulty of the device knowing when letters have started and stopped, it’s been designed to recognize full words, drawn in the air like magic.
It’s certainly impressive tech, and not the first from Fujitsu. Last year the company blew the world’s collective hive mind with its haptic feedback tablet at MWC.
The issue is that Fujitsu’s got its work cut out to bring smart rings into credibility. The early photos look…terrible, and it’s clearly just a prototype at the moment. However, it’s not far off some smart ring products that have come dangerously close to market.
Particular offenders are the Mota ring, which appeared to double in size between IFA in September and CES in January, and Kickstarter ‘success’ Ring, which has been roundly dispatched as one of the ‘worst wearables in history’.
Only the long-awaited Ringly seems to have managed to keep its credibility intact.
How we test
James is the co-founder of Wareable, and he has been a technology journalist for 15 years.
He started his career at Future Publishing, James became the features editor of T3 Magazine and T3.com and was a regular contributor to TechRadar – before leaving Future Publishing to found Wareable in 2014.
James has been at the helm of Wareable since 2014 and has become one of the leading experts in wearable technologies globally. He has reviewed, tested, and covered pretty much every wearable on the market, and is passionate about the evolving industry, and wearables helping people achieve healthier and happier lives.