How Digital Jewelry Will Function

Jewelry has always been worn for a variety of reasons — for style, to make an impression, or as a symbol of personal connections or commitments. Essentially, jewelry decorates the body with little practical use. But now, researchers are exploring new ways to rethink the purpose of the accessories we wear. In the upcoming era of mobile devices, jewelry might serve as a cell phone, PDA, or GPS device.

Advances in miniaturized computer devices and enhanced computing power have enabled companies to create jewelry with integrated smart technology. Manufacturers can now place millions of transistors on a microchip, producing compact devices capable of storing vast amounts of digital information. Researchers have already developed several digital jewelry prototypes. 'We've created nearly every type of wearable except for tongue rings,' says Dan Russell, senior manager at IBM's Almaden Research Lab, where the company is pioneering digital jewelry technology.

Russell believes that digital jewelry represents the first step in breaking down the personal computer into smaller, wearable components. In this edition of How Stuff WILL Work, explore these microdevices that could soon become part of our daily lives and revolutionize communication and computing.

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Cell phones are about to undergo a major transformation, shedding their traditional form. Rather than a single device, cell phones will be divided into separate pieces of digital jewelry. Each piece will contain a part of the technology found in a typical mobile phone, as stated by IBM. Together, these pieces will function as a complete mobile phone.

Let’s explore the different elements that make up a cell phone:

IBM has created a prototype for a cell phone composed of several pieces of digital jewelry that communicate wirelessly, possibly utilizing Bluetooth technology, to perform the tasks of the components mentioned above.

Here are the components of IBM's computerized-jewelry phone and their functions:

With this jewelry phone, the dialing function and keypad might be integrated into the bracelet, or possibly omitted entirely — voice-recognition software is expected to handle calls, a feature already available on many modern cell phones. Just say the name of the person you want to call, and the phone will dial them. IBM is also developing a tiny rechargeable battery to power these devices. Click here to watch a RealPlayer video about IBM's digital-jewelry project.

In addition to transforming how we make phone calls, digital jewelry will also influence how we handle the growing flood of e-mails. Picture the same ring that flashes for phone calls also alerting you to an overflowing inbox. This flashing signal could even indicate how urgent the e-mail is. In the next section, we’ll explore an IBM ring designed to change how you interact with your computer.

Of Mice and Monitors

Two of the most iconic elements of a personal computer are the mouse and monitor. These devices are as commonplace as a television set today. However, in the coming decade, we might see these devices vanish or evolve significantly. Companies like IBM and Charmed Technology are working on head-mounted displays. IBM is also shrinking the computer mouse to the size of a ring and designing a wrist-worn display.

The mouse-ring IBM is developing will use the company’s TrackPoint technology to wirelessly move the cursor on a computer monitor. You’re likely familiar with TrackPoint as the small button embedded in some laptop keyboards. IBM researchers have adapted this technology into a ring resembling a black-pearl design. The top of the ring features a small black ball, which users can rotate to move the cursor, similar to how the TrackPoint button functions on laptops.

This TrackPoint ring will be incredibly useful when monitors shrink down to the size of a watch face. In the future era of ubiquitous computing, displays won’t be limited to desktops or wall screens. Instead, you’ll wear them like sunglasses or a bracelet. Researchers are working to overcome several challenges with these wearable displays, particularly the challenge of making information legible on these compact devices.

While IBM is still in the development phase, Charmed Technology has already begun selling its digital jewelry, including a futuristic eyepiece display. This eyepiece is part of the company’s Charmed Communicator, a wearable, wireless broadband internet device that can be controlled via voice, a pen, or a handheld keypad. The device could be available for mainstream use by the end of 2001 or early 2002. The Communicator functions as an MP3 player, video player, and cell phone, and it runs on Charmed’s Linux-based Nanix operating system.

The Java Ring

Nowadays, everything we interact with seems to be locked down. Even our devices are secured with passwords. Keeping track of all the necessary passwords and keys to access various doors and programs can be overwhelming. Dallas Semiconductor is creating a new, Java-powered digital ring that will automatically unlock doors and log users into their computers.

First unveiled at the JavaOne Conference, the Java Ring has been trialed at Celebration School, a progressive K-12 school near Orlando, FL. The students are given rings programmed with Java applets, which interact with host applications on networked systems. These applets are compact applications designed to run within another. To enable communication between the host system and the Java Ring, the ring is placed in a reader called a Blue Dot receptor.

The Java Ring is a stainless-steel band, 16 millimeters (0.6 inches) wide, housing a 1-million-transistor processor called an iButton. The ring contains 134 KB of RAM, 32 KB of ROM, a real-time clock, and a Java virtual machine, which is software that understands Java language and translates it into a format the user's computer can comprehend.

At Celebration School, the rings are set up to store electronic cash for lunch payments, automatically unlock doors, take attendance, hold student medical records, and even allow students to check out books. All this data is stored on the ring's iButton. To use it, students simply press their Java Ring's signet against the Blue Dot receptor, and the system performs the action instructed by the applet. In the future, the Java Ring could even start your car.

Mobile computing is liberating us from the confines of desks, but many of today's mobile devices are still cumbersome to carry. In the future of computing, we are likely to see a proliferation of computer components across our bodies rather than on our desks. Digital jewelry, designed to complement personal computers, will mark a major evolution in digital technology, making computing elements seamlessly integrate with the human body.