This ring turns your finger into a phone

Last year I got to check out Sgnl, a wristwatch that subtly vibrates your wrist to send audio through your finger bones and into your ear bones. "Bone conduction," as it's known in the professional literature. It worked, kind of. It wasn't very loud, and the audio wasn't as good as a Bluetooth headset. But I could hear stuff, for sure.

Orii is a new Kickstarter (via Engadget) with a similar idea, but it cuts out the middleman: you wear it as a ring on your finger, so the vibration has a shorter distance to travel.

Of course, putting a ring the size of a Bluetooth headset on your index finger feels like a heavier fashion lift than a watch. I guess, all things considered, the Orii looks as good as you could expect.

  That is to say, it looks like somebody glued a Jawbone headset to a ring.

In addition to working for phone calls and private convos with your voice assistant of choice, there's iOS and Android app for Orii where you can customize your notifications, which will flash an LED light on the ring.

Orii has a mere hour of estimated talk-time battery, but 45 hours of standby, so that's something to think about. It's also splash-proof. Before it ships to you (if it ships) you'll get a ring-sizing gauge to choose the correct fit.

The early-bird price is $119, and Orii is supposed to ship in February 2018. We'll see about that! It's from a first-time company, and from the timeline posted on the project page it doesn't look like engineering is final yet.