Ringbow: Bluetooth game controller you wear on your finger

"Ringbow" is a recent, half-funded Kickstarter project from a team that includes Andrew Hartman, design director of Philips Electronics. It's a Bluetooth game-controller that you wear on your finger, serving as "a mouse, keyboard and joystick simultaneously." A $35 pledge gets you one when they ship.

Since touch screens are controlled with fingers, a finger-worn tool, specifically a ring, is the natural choice for complementing them. Operating Ringbow with your thumb, in conjunction with using a touch device, enables countless new features and a much more efficient user experience. Ringbow multiplies the functionality of your finger together with allowing amazing simultaneous actions providing powerful capabilities and layers of functionality that are simply not available in today’s technologies.

Operating the ring with your thumb while using your finger to touch a device provides powerful capabilities and layers of functionality that are simply not available in today’s technologies. Ringbow multiplies the functionality of your finger together with allowing amazing simultaneous actions.

Ringbow - Next Generation Gaming Accessory (via Red Ferret)

• [Mike Meyer]

  ah, but is it embossed to say ‘BIG OL NERD’ when you take it off your finger?

• [Arduenn]

  Not sure if I want to wear a bulky plastic thing on my finger while gaming or manipulating stuff on a screen, especially after seeing this Minority Report-like thingie that doesn’t need any accessories whatsoever: http://youtu.be/_d6KuiuteIA .

  • [Itsumishi]

    That looks very promising. Kind of too promising. 

    Although after a look at the Engadget article I’m much more convinced.

  • [DoctorMikeReddy]

    Thank you SO much for posting this! Have applied for Developer SDK; fingers crossed.

    It’s chalk and cheese really, but I can see applications for both.

  • [Kimmo]

    Holy crap, that Leap thing is sweet!

    It doesn’t need accessories, but playing Angry Birds with chopsticks looks pretty rad.

• [theophrastvs]

  (typing of big*old*nerd) wasn’t there a star-trek TNG where they were playing some game and had a bunch of *wires* (no wireless in the 24th century) on their fingers… ah yes, here: http://en.memory-alpha.org/wiki/Strategema    hm, probably no inspiration there ala communicators and cell-phones …nah.

  • [Kimmo]

    Damn, that link is nerdly cubed.

• [ifriit]

  Actually, it’s $45 to get one.  $35 was for the first 200.

• [Itsumishi]

  Is it just me or is the ‘Ringbow” nothing more than a bluetooth d-pad wrapped in an ugly plastic enclosure?

  • [Dan Hibiki]

     there’s also about a million of these things out there already: https://www.google.ca/search?q=ring%20mouse&oe=utf-8&aq=t&rls=org.mozilla:en-US:official&client=firefox-a&um=1&ie=UTF-8&hl=en&tbm=isch&source=og&sa=N&tab=wi&ei=XV7sT5yrJqPQ2AXDt4isAQ&biw=1395&bih=612&sei=YV7sT4zqG-aJ6gHh9f2xBQ

    • [Matt Fowler]

       They all seem to be either proprietary wireless (i.e. not bluetooth, hence no good for mobile devices), or are an optical mouse that requires a surface for its optical stuff to track. Also no good on a phone. Although, the generic-wireless-with-dongle Genius one actually fills a need for me – but it looks like it needs its own proprietary cable for charging though. (Ringbow feeds off microusb)

    • [Jorpho]

       That’s what I thought.  I understood that ergonomic problems have presented a considerable barrier to their wider adoption.

• [Ian Wood]

  I am intrigued by its possible applications in the field of teledildonics.

  Which is unfortunate, because there aren’t any. Not really.

• [glittalogik]

  This would make an amazingly easy-to-lose HTPC controller. I want it!

• [francoisroux]

  After spiral cutting my wiener I find it a little difficult to wear… oh wait, finger worn…

• [Tim in SF]

  Hey Cory, was that quote translated from Japanese? 

  • [timquinn]

    New ring allow quick cut and paste. bang bang. (oops)

• [John Thomas]

  it’s look pretty cool to use and feel some difference.

• [HahTse]

  I call Bullshytt. (not bullshit, mind you.)

• [liquidstar]

  It’s nice to see Dr. Who is still inspiring design strategies.

  • [NelC]

     The Doctor prefers the screwdriver design paradigm.

• [Joshua Botha]

  This is an amazing product !! i hope it becomes an international one too!! You guys should approach Wii for funding!!   

• [Vickie Kostecki]

  This might be an interesting alternative to a trackpad on a laptop.  Trackpads are the main reason I rarely use laptops.

• [groovyeyal]

  Take my money.

• [Jim Baur]

  What are you looking at?? The camera is over here!  Hey!  Over here!

• [pKp]

  “Ringbow multiplies the functionality of your finger together with allowing amazing simultaneous actions.”
  snigger

• [Kimmo]

  Nobody’s mentioned the coolest thing about this – one of the colours is called blouis c.k.

• [eljefe900]

  I don’t need this for my iPad! I need this for my Kinect! So I can control my movement through space as in most traditional games!

• [penguinchris]

  I’ve been mulling over designs for a similar device for years. I want to be able to scroll through e.g. BoingBoing comment threads while using my hands for something else (such as eating – get your mind out of the gutter), or just leaning back with my hands behind my head relaxing. 

  I thought of something like this but I don’t think it’s ideal for my needs because if I’m doing something with both hands it won’t work. My next idea was to have something controlled by the foot – at its simplest it could just be a single programmable bluetooth keyboard button; for scrolling you’d set it to the down arrow. The problem there is that my feet aren’t always on the ground. What I need is a mind-scrollbar interface.

  Since the Ringbow is essentially one of my ideas come to life I’m rather tempted… I guess I’d need to know if it will actually work to scroll on computers.