2019 Update: Following its successful crowd funding in 2017/2018 (raising almost half a million USD on Kickstarter and IndieGoGo), the Orii Smart Ring has been launched with great success. In fact, the order page on the Orii site often reads that they are currently out of stock, such is the popularity of the ring. This post will tell you about the rign, what it does and will help you decide if it is the right smart wearable for you.
What is the Orii Smart Ring?
Many Smart Rings offer a range of similar features, such as notifications when you receive a call or message, activity tracking or safety alerts. These are all wonderful and useful features that we believe are only going to improve and expand. The Orii Smart Ring tackles a much different, more fundamental and every day challenge, communication.
The ring turns your finger into a smart phone, allowing you to make and receive phone calls, with a paired compatible mobile phone. As if by magic, when the phone rings, press your finger to your ear and you will be able to hear the person at the other end of the call. As their tag line says, it literally puts your phone at your finger tip.
In addition to being able to make calls, the Orii Smart Ring can send texts, and use your voice assistant without a screen.
How does it work?
The Orii works by passing the sound through the bones in your finger, into your ear. So you’re hearing the sound through the anatomy of your finger and ear. It’s amazing, like a spy movie! The clip below shows some users freaking out at the clarity and quality of the sound.
To transmit your voice to the person at the other end works in a more straight forward way. There is a microphone in Orii that transmits your voice to the caller, via your Bluetooth enabled phone.
The idea of calling someone or receiving a call, without a headset, by just pressing your finger to your ear is a game changer for communication.
More Detail
The Orii Smart Ring is a well made and highly engineered product. The original idea of the ORII began with the father of the Kevin Wong, founder of Orii. Kevin’s father Peter is visually-impaired and inspired Kevin and the team to make technology more accessible for everyone.
The team believe that “technology is moving away from screens…people are not getting as excited about it as they used to be…that’s why a lot of companies have been shifting to voice products like HomePod, Google Home, Echo.”
Kevin Wong – https://hivelife.com/qa-with-kevin-wong-emile-chan-of-orii/
At Origami Labs, we want to help shape what Hong Kong’s rapidly changing tech scene.
The ring has a 50 mAh battery delivering one and a half hours of talk time. Orii estimate that this will equate to more than 150 interactions, because it is largely designed for short phone calls and texts.
Orii don’t recommend showering with the ring on, though it is designed to meet IPX7 water resistance testing and can resist immersion in 1 meter of water for up to 30 minutes. This effectively means that Orii is splash proof, so if you’re looking for a smart ring that you can swim with, this won’t suit you.
Color Options and Sizes
Orri currently comes in 4 colors:
Armor Red 
Dark Knight 
Stardust Silver 
Space Grey
As far as sizing goes, there is great flexibility. Because the main technical components in the ring are not part of the ring itself, there are ten adjustable ring sizes included in the ORII package. You can try them all until you get the perfect fit and use a simple screw driver to secure the ring and lock in the fit.
Orii is compatible with Android 6 and above and iOS 10 or above.
AI Possibilities
Being able to speak to your phone, from a distance, opens up another world of possibilities, AI. We can see tremendous applications for staying connected in situations where placing your finger to your ear is far more convenient than digging your phone out of your purse or bag.
But the possibilities don’t stop there. The Orii team are striving to have the device thinking and acting for you. Like letting you know that there is a Starbucks coming up and you have $10 left on your Starbucks card.
Or reminding you to bring an umbrella as it’s raining outside or there might be rain later during the day.
They are trying to change the way people communicate with their devices and promote more conversation based approaches to live a more screen free life. Love it!
Design
The Orri ring is certainly stylish. Soft edges and an angular orientation helping to make it look more like a fashion piece and less like a James Bond toy.
Whilst the size of the ring is quite large, the way that the team have designed it really is amazing. The angles of the ring and the lines created are really appealing. Remember that this ring allows you to make a phone call! It’s really remarkable that it is this small when you think about it.
Is Orii right for you?
The Orii Smart Ring is unparalleled in the tech it offers. At the time of writing this, no other manufacturer is using bone conducting wizardry to allow you to make calls.
But putting this aside, tech is not everything if it doesn’t work for you. So is this ring right for you?
Put simply, we believe the Orii smart ring will suit anyone who fits into the following categories:
Anyone….
- who makes regular short calls or texts
- who can’t easily use or carry a smart phone
- who is vision impaired
- who loves cutting edge technology
If you meet one or more of these criteria, we think you’ll love the Orii Smart Ring. Head over to their site and get your order in.
[…] Yep, that is the Buy Smart Rings team getting excited that Orii (of Origami Labs), the very-first voice assistant ring, was represented at the trade show in Taiwan. We have written about Orii in the past and we are closely following their progress in the Smart Ring space. This Smart Ring connects to your phone through Bluetooth and works via gesture and voice commands. You can also make and receive calls. We think the Orii ring has significant application to all lifestyles including those who are hearing impaired. See our blog post about Orii here. […]
[…] The Orii Smart Ring kickstarter campaign has ended it’s kickstarter campaign in style. The final tally was an amazing $333,619 pledged! There were a total of 2,082 backers. Considering the target was only $30,000, this demonstrates the market is desperate to see this innovative wearable become a reality. We’ve previously previewed the Orii Smart Ring here. […]