Overview
Fashion zombies of the '90s, your favourite mood readers have had a big ol' 2014 update. Mood rings have become the latest focus of a new startup out of Finland, who've taken your shitty piece of faux emotion-reading tin and turned it into a piece of wearable tech that can actually tell you how you're feeling.
Finnish techheads Moodmetric unveiled a brand new smart ring at the Slush startup conference in Helsinki, Finland last week, one that can apparently actually use a biometric sensor to report on those pesky feelings of yours — rather than waiting for your $2 Reject Shop toy to turn blue. Always blue.
Proposed to launch commercially in 2015 after an upcoming crowdfunding campaign, Moodmetric's ring is the smallest wearable technology in the world for measuring emotions. Apparently the device works using a biometric sensor to measure the small changes in your skin generated by your nervous system, which can measure your "emotional voltage".
Then, your little wearable buddy sends the data to your smartphone app and diarises your moods for the day. International Business Times compared the Moodmetric ring to current developments like the Smarty Ring, Ringly or MOTA, but noted this new ring isn't just a notification extension of your smartphone inbox — it reads you.
"It's possible for people to analyse their emotional levels throughout the day and learn when they're the most stressed, what makes them calm down and what times of the day are significant in terms if emotional intensity," Moodmetric COO Niina Venho told the IBT. "By naming those feelings Moodmetric allows people to get to know themselves better."
One step further than the ol' teenage jewellery box edition, the Moodmetric ring has teamed up with your 'Dear Diary' time to help you track your emotional ups and downs and to calm your mind at certain "emotional load peaks" of the day. A ring that helps us de-stress? Proposal accepted.