I am the first to admit that I have a pretty big nerdy streak.  Anything that combines my love of jewelry design with my love of geeky gadgetry is sure to catch my attention! So, although I am a late to the party, (this original design idea was brought out in 2007), I was intrigued by this idea of a futuristic way of exchanging information.

The ring is basically conceived as a modern business card.  Worn as normal rings, they are designed to pick up the wearer's business or contact information while shaking hands.  Imagine the convenience for networking if you could automatically store key details about everyone who you shook hands with!  You could even use it to add people to your mailing list at exhibitions, craft fairs or trade shows. Of course, the success of the ring would depend on it's universal adoption by as many people as possible, however if the massive success of the iPhone has shown us anything it's that when something new proves itself useful as well as cool and evolves to meet our needs, our tech-happy society is quick to adopt it.

The ring then slots onto a specially designed business card sized tablet, and acts as a control to browse through all of the information stored within the ring's database.

Given the strides in mobile technology made over the past few years since this design won the coveted Red Dot Award for Concept Design in 2007, I am a little surprised that they haven't appeared in circulation.  Perhaps they weren't cost effective?  Perhaps consumers thought the design too clunky? Or perhaps we are content with "bumping" mobile phones, or exchanging business cards via bluetooth?

What are your thoughts?  Do you like the idea of futuristic function driving jewelry design?