Lenovo’s AI Ring Let Me Control a 3D PC With a Click of My Fingers, Like a Wizard

You might think you understand the purpose of a smart ring by now. It measures your steps, your stress levels, your sleep — you get it. But wait! Lenovo’s concept AI smart ring is a whole different kettle of fish.

I’ll admit that when I tried it on just now at Mobile World Congress here in Barcelona, it looked and felt much like the smart rings I’ve worn before. It had the profile of a man’s wedding ring, with slightly too much bulk around the sides. Form is one thing though, function another entirely.

The point of this ring is to allow for gesture-based control of Lenovo’s ThinkBook 3D Laptop (also currently a concept). The laptop itself has a directional 3D backlight that allows 2D and 3D content to appear next to each other simultaneously on the same screen. The ring allows you to manipulate that 3D content, spinning it around and upside down — here’s how.

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With the ring worn on your pointer finger, you can use your thumb to double tap (to enter or go forward) or single tap (to go back) on an illuminated dot, then swipe either side to navigate around. In the demo I was shown, I could navigate between 3D models, including a T. rex and a spaceship, and examine them from all angles simply by gently grazing the ring.

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Best of all, was that the ring could sense when I was snapping my fingers. In the demo I was able to flick through a presentation of slides simply by clicking with my thumb and middle finger. I didn’t even touch the ring, but it could clearly read the vibration in my hand. I felt a little like a wizard — albeit a wizard presenting a slide deck (and if I were a wizard I’d probably use my powers to avoid being in a corporate job).

The clicking was seamless, but the gesture control was tricky to get the hang of and didn’t always work exactly how it was supposed to. It’s important to remember though that this is just a concept for now, and as a concept, it’s one I liked. Wearable tech often ends up simply being variations on a theme — that theme being fitness tracking — but this showed a sense of imagination and ambition that I’d love to see more of in the growing smart ring market.