This James Bond-style wearable ring can practically do everything your smartphone can

https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/lazyco/aina-ring-redefining-the-way-we-control-everything

I sort of always thought the endgame of cellphones was a device that sat on your wrist or finger, and that turned your entire hand into a phone. You held your hand to your ear and you could instantly talk to people ‘through your hand’, without needing an external phone. It’s 2019, and while we still don’t have flying cars, we have Aina… a version of that endgame for cellphones. Aina is a smart wearable-ring that sits on your finger and does practically everything your smartphone can. Aina books cabs, makes payments, unlocks doors, toggles through presentations, tracks your fitness, and most importantly, it lets you talk on your phone… without your phone. Just hold your finger up to your ear and Aina projects sound directly into your ear. It’s quite literally an experience out of a James Bond movie or Dick Tracy novel.

Hindi for ‘mirror’, Aina mirrors the smartphone experience, while sitting on your finger. Working in conjunction with your phone, Aina is a device that lets you access your phone’s power features without really taking your phone out of your pocket. The ring comes with a small screen for displaying icons and notifications for activating shortcuts, but how does this small display allow one to control all such devices and shortcuts- Aina uses the a proprietary AIUI or Artificially Intelligent User Interface which learns your phone usage behavior and predicts the right shortcuts for you on the ring’s screen just before you need them, and the ring itself has a wide medley of touch sensors to track how you control it. The Aina sits on your index finger, and can be controlled with your thumb, allowing you to swipe up, down, sideways, and even tap on it to control the ring’s multiple functions. A strong Bluetooth 5.0 connection tethers the Aina to your phone, making sure the ring and phone communicate seamlessly, while the Aina itself has haptic feedback built into it, letting you know through subtle vibrations when you’ve registered a command successfully.

Spend a few minutes with Aina and you really get a taste of what the future feels like. The device is so incredibly feature-rich, it feels like a smartphone in its own right. Aina snoozes alarms with a swipe, books cabs with a tap, and even lets you talk to your phone’s AI assistant. To answer calls or talk to your Voice AI, Aina uses a revolutionary technology called Near Field Directional Sound that broadcasts sound in a focused beam right to your ear when you hold the Aina up to the side of your face. This somewhat proprietary use of the technology ensures that sound doesn’t leak out into the world, so when you’re talking to someone using the Aina, only you can hear what they’re saying. You can even talk to voice assistants like Siri, Google Now, and even Alexa, telling them to call people, or set up appointments, alarms, order stuff online, and control smart-home tech like your thermostat, lights, or even your garage door. Aina’s partnership with Uber allows you to summon cabs right through your ring (without even looking at your phone), and their compatibility with Smartcar lets you even lock/unlock your car directly from the ring itself.

That isn’t all. Aina’s touch-sensitive surface makes it the perfect remote control for devices other than your phone. You can easy enter Aina’s different modes using your voice, and have the ring control your slideshows, presentations, smart lights, music devices using in-built IFTTT, and even your FireTV. Aina is also designed to be your encrypted payment device. Partnering with Lisnr to use ultrasonic soundwaves to communicate with your phone, Aina can make payments too, or even create payment profiles for you to use at the metro, or other modes of public transport.

Designed with the soul of a smartphone in the body of a deceptively small wearable, Aina is a fitness tracker too. Packed with 6-axis motion sensors, the small finger-worn device calculates and tracks your steps and calorie-count all in one svelte, slick wearable that unsuspectingly sits on your finger. For safety, Aina packs an SOS feature too, allowing you to send your location and an alert to a loved one, or directly access your security service if you’ve signed up for one.

The team behind the Aina, Lazy Co., has make a tremendous journey to get to this point. Starting with being a part of Qualcomm’s 6-month long Hardware Acceleration Program, to winning multiple start-up tech awards and connecting with industry giants like Alibaba-Cloud among many others to get to where they are now… with a device that literally looks like a fragment of the future. Aina’s design language borders on jewelry design, with a black onyx-like rectangle on the front, and a small display on the edge, giving you intelligent notifications. The ring itself comes in metal, and for enthusiasts, Aina even comes plated in gold, rose-gold, and even platinum. Even in its current avatar, as a proof-of-concept ready for production, the Aina is ground-breaking. If the iPhone excited you 12 years ago with the infinite number of possibilities it held, the Aina gives off a very similar vibe, promising a future where devices don’t need to have 6-inch screens to be incredibly useful. Aina is proof that tech is getting smaller and better, while also remaining incredibly user friendly. With features that can rival, if not overtake, any other wearable, Aina comes with 5V wireless charging and a waterproof rating of IPX7, allowing you to wear it through the day, even in mild rain. Its 50mAh Battery lasts well over a day (36 hours standby) and gives a solid 2.5 hours of talktime. Compatible with iOS as well as Android, Aina on its last leg at the crowdfunding stage, all ready to go into full-scale development. Go ahead and grab one yourself using the link below. The future of wearables ships free worldwide!

Designer: Apoorv Shankar of LazyCo

Click Here to Buy Now: $249 $349 ($100 off). Hurry, less than 24 hours left!

Aina Ring – The First AI wearable that knows what you need.

Take Phone Calls from your Fingers. Get AI shortcuts to Book cabs and Control Smart Home. Presentation control, SOS, & so much more.

What is Aina Ring

– Aina is the easiest and the fastest way to control almost Everything without the need to take your phone out.
– Aina is a premium AI powered smart ring that connects to your phone via Bluetooth and becomes a personalized remote for controlling smart home devices, booking cabs and unlocking devices effortlessly.

– Aina is also an easier way to take phone calls and talk with Voice Assistants privately, just place your fingertips near your ear and get talking.
– Aina is also a subtle Fitness Tracker and a beautiful timepiece that sits on your finger.
– Aina is a beautiful interface that makes use of your smartphone as a remote computing device to let you handle daily tasks in the most efficient way possible.

Aina Ring is Supported by Qualcomm

Lazy Design Private Limited was a part of Qualcomm’s 6 month Hardware Acceleration program in Bangalore, India between August 2018 and March 2019 under QDIC 2018 where we connected with verified Electronic Partners and got some great Technical Mentoring. In addition this, we have won various Awards as a startup in the last 2 years.

Why Aina Ring

Scientifically, Aina is the Easiest, Fastest and the Laziest way to control. Anything. The team has spent the last 2 years in Research and Development to devise the perfect solution incorporating the latest advancements in AI, Acoustics and Microelectronics to create Aina. Aina is about 70% faster than your smartphone touchscreens and about 30% faster than Smart Speakers at getting Everyday tasks done.

Interacting with Aina:

– Aina connects with your smartphone using Bluetooth 5.0 and works with our Aina app installed in your phone.
– Its controlled using 4 swipe gestures in 4 different directions on the touch sensing area of the ring that control Aina’s display.
– These Swipe gestures are detected by a combination of Touch sensors on the Band’s surface and Motion sensors inside the ring by algorithms that are trained and calibrated to your specific way of swiping on the ring.
– Whenever you swipe on the ring, you feel a subtle vibration as feedback.
– By using a combination of such a sensing and feedback mechanism, we avoid accidental inputs for the ring.
– In case you anyways activate a shortcut by mistake, you can swipe down right after the feel the vibrational feedback to undo that action.
– The home screen displays time and any recent notifications.
– AI shortcuts come as pop ups over the Home screen which you can choose to Accept, reject, snooze.
– You can also find the most relevant shortcuts for you by swiping left to right across the home screen.
– Swipe Down on the Home screen to activate your Voice Assistant and enter specific “Modes” by giving a Custom Voice Command to Aina.

Below: Features of Aina

1. AI UI : Artificially Intelligent user interface – An AI remote for your smartphone

– After installing Aina app on your phone, you can select which applications you want shortcuts for.
– The app uses machine learning algorithms to learn your smartphone usage behavior related to the selected applications and Aina starts predicting shortcuts for you with significant accuracy within 3 weeks.
– The predicted shortcuts come as pop ups over the Home Screen of Aina which by default displays time, you can always choose to accept, reject or snooze the shortcut using the 4 swipe directions on the ring.
– And as you keep using Aina, these predictions keep getting more accurate.

Control Smart Home Devices: All popular smart home devices can be controlled using Aina through IFTTT.
Book Cabs: The makers have already integrated with Uber and will be working with Lyft and other popular Cab booking services next.
Unlock Cars: The team has partnered with Smartcar Inc., a US based company to control, lock and unlock your car with Aina.
Unlock devices using Bluetooth: Bluetooth proximity based Smart home devices can be locked and unlocked using Aina.

Aina knows when you typically book cabs to Office and it will show the shortcut to Book an Uber to Office just before you need it.

Aina knows when its time to sleep and based on your usage of your Home lights, it will show the shortcut to Switch Off the room lights as soon as you go to sleep.

2. Near Field Directional Sound

Using a Proprietary Acoustic channel design and applying DSP on sound in the Human Speech range, the patent pending Near Field Directional Sound technology projects sound in a focused beam towards your ear from Aina when you place your fingertips near your ear.

Take Phone calls: Say “Call Jay” to call your friend Jay through Aina. For incoming calls, Aina vibrates and shows you who is calling, swipe up to receive the call and talk from your fingers.

Talk to Voice Assistants: Swipe down on Home Screen and talk with Siri, Google Assistant or Alexa privately without saying the assistant’s name. Aina’s mic gets activated only when you swipe to activate the Voice assistant so there is no always-listening mode that may hinder your privacy.

3. Voice Activated Modes

Aina takes custom Voice commands and enters into specific modes to control individual devices or services. Third parties will soon be able to make their own Modes for Aina.

Slideshow Mode: Control slideshow by swiping up down left right on Aina.
Smart Light Mode: Control the intensity and color of smart bulbs using Aina for any device that can be controlled through IFTTT .
Music Mode: Switch tracks on your phone using Aina, even if you are listening to music from Bluetooth speakers or wireless earphones connected to your phone.
TV Remote Mode: Control your TV by swiping on Aina or by giving Voice commands. Works with FireTV and Sensy Remote.

4. Sound ID

Aina have partnered with Lisnr Inc., a US company specializing in communication protocols using encrypted sound wherein two devices communicate with each other using near ultrasonic sound that is inaudible, encrypted and more secure than NFC (you can anyways paste an NFC sticker on Aina if you use it a lot). Applications of Sound based authentication are limitless, but we start with a few popular ones:

POS Payments: Make payments at select POS terminals around the world just by waving your hand near the receiving device, cross check the amount on Aina and swipe up to approve the transaction.
P2P Payments: Send money to your friend’s phone in Digital Wallets that allow transactions via Sound based authentication.
*Access Cards: Aina creates an encrypted Sound ID for you to access Metros, public transport services and Offices that accept Sound based authentication. Once you help us make Aina popular, we will try and get Sound based authentication installed in all major Public Transport services.

5. Fitness Tracking

Aina is fitness tracker packed with 6 axis Motion sensors to track your daily activity. Aina is specially designed to complement your office attire as opposed to typical Silicon band based fitness trackers.

– Step Counting
– Calorie Tracking

6. Time and Intelligent Notifications

Aina is the first ring that features a 200 DPI OLED Display. A display that is designed to always stay in your field of view, so you can see the time and check phone notifications even when you are driving, typing, writing or just sitting.

– Check Time
– Subtle Vibration Feedback for selected notifications
– Check Phone Notifications: You can select which applications you want notifications from and whenever a selected app’s notification comes, Aina will vibrate and the app’s icon will be displayed in its screen.
– AIUI and Notifications also work in sync, if you give Aina access to your notifications, AIUI will predict a shortcut for you based on the Notification.
– Aina has been designed to complement your daily attire so you look great even when you are snapping your fingers like Thanos.

Below: Tech Specs of Aina

– Aina Face dimensions: 26mm x 17mm x 6.5mm
– Weight of Current Prototype: 15gms/0.5 Oz
– Material: Precious Metal plating or Anodizing over Titanium Base
– Qualcomm SoC with Dual mode Bluetooth 5.0
– Dual Noise Cancelling Microphones
– Compatible with iOS and Android
– 50mAh Battery – 1.5-2.5* hours talktime, 36* hours standby
– 6 Axis motion sensor
– NFDS(Near Field Directional Sound) speaker unit(Patent Pending)
– OLED Edge Display- 200 dpi
– Vibration module
– 5V Charging Dock
– Water Resistance: Aina is SplashProof- IPX7
– Ring Size: We will send a sizing chart to you before we start shipping the rings.

Demo of Near Field Directional Sound using the final prototype of Aina Ring.

Demo of Smart Home Control through Aina.

Demo of Booking an Uber through Aina.

Demo of Controlling Slides through Aina using Custom Google Assistant Voice Commands.

A simulation of Paying through Aina using Sound ID.

Current Prototype Photos

The current prototype of Aina is 1.2x bigger than the final size of Aina, the main reason behind this is the absence of standard OLED displays of sizes that would fit inside Aina. The OLED Display used here is going to be replaced by a Custom made Curved OLED Display. The Charger Design shown here is not Final.

The Story of Aina

The team started their Design process by studying the human body and its muscles to find out which would be the easiest motion in the human body that can be practically used to activate a shortcut. After a lot of Browsing the internet, user testing and surveys the team figured blinking of eyes is too unreliable and Brain computer interfaces are still too far ahead, so they selected the next laziest motion the human body can perform – swiping the thumb over the index finger.

While still in college finishing their major projects when they had no money at all, the team started working on a Prototype of the ring using an RN52 Module and an Arduino Board and tested the use case of taking phone calls with the ring in addition to activating shortcuts through it.

Click Here to Buy Now: $249 $349 ($100 off). Hurry, less than 24 hours left!