One Ring to Rule Them All

Abstract

Smartrings have potential to extend our ubiquitous control through their always available and finger-worn location, as well as their quick and subtle interactions. As such, smartrings have gained popularity in research and in commercial usage; however, they often concentrate on a singular or novel aspect of a smartring's potential. While with any emerging technology the focus on these individual components is important, there is a lack of broader empirical understanding regarding a user's intentions for smartring usage. Thus in this work, we investigate concrete and reported smartring usage scenarios throughout the daily lives of participants. During a two-week in-situ diary study (N = 14), utilizing a mock smartring, we provide an initial understanding of the potential tasks, daily activities, connected devices, and interactions for which augmentation with a smartring was desired. We further highlight patterns of imagined smartring use found by our participants. Finally, we provide and discuss guidelines, grounded through our found knowledge, to inform research and development towards the design of future smartrings.