AINA Ring: uses Behavioural AI to anticipate what you need next

June 13, 2019 Marko Maslakovic Crowdfunding, Smart clothes 3 min read

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Smart rings have been around for a while now but we’ve yet to see one truly take off. A team from India is attempting to change this with AINA Ring.

What’s most innovative about this gadget is that it attempts to use Behavioural AI to anticipate what a user needs next. What this means is that it learns your behaviour and throws up shortcuts at just the right moment. Or at least it tries to do so. For example, just before you go to sleep it might become a light switch.

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AINA connects to your smartphone Bluetooth 5.0 and functions as a portal for controlling smart home devices, booking cabs and unlocking things. It’s controlled using 4 swipe gestures in 4 directions on the touch sensitive area of the ring. There’s also a small 200 DPI OLED display which shows the time, recent notifications and AI shortcuts.

According to the Kickstarter page, AINA makes talking on the phone or to voice assistants easier. Just place your fingertips near your ear and start talking. It comes with something called NFDS (Near Field Directional Sound) which projects sound in a focused beam towards your ear.

Other functions include Sound ID and Modes. The first uses encrypted sound signals to perform secure payments, access public transport and unlock devices. The second uses voice control to activate specific Modes such as SOS, music control, slide-show control and more.

Finally, Aina also functions as a very basic fitness tracker. It has a 6-axis motion sensor inside which will keep tabs on your steps and calories. The 50mAh Battery has enough juice for 1.5-2.5 hours of talk-time and 36 hours standby.

As you’d expect, the rather large looking ring also comes with a smartphone app which you can use to select which applications you want shortcuts for. It takes about 3 weeks for the gizmo to learn your behaviour related to the selected applications and start spitting out shortcut predictions. The company says, in time these shortcuts will become more accurate.

The project to make this ring a reality is live on Kickstarter now. There are a number of design options to choose from including Gold plated, Platinum plated and Rose Gold plated precious metals series, as well as Gloss Black Rhodium plated, Matte Grey anodised and Mate Black anodised texture series.

If you want in it will cost you upwards of $249. Delivery is expected at the start of next year. Usual warnings about crowdfunded projects apply.