With the advent of the smartphone, our dependency on them has increased beyond anything we could have ever fathomed. We use it to stay connected, to be updated on the latest trends and also as a status symbol. However, with the rise of touch-screen technology, most people secretly developed an inferiority complex on account of their stubby fingers. Personally, I have also had to deal with the ‘troll fingers’ complex on the smaller sub 4.7 inches screens.
It seems that the new Haloband project being launched out of Shanghai-based team, which includes an ex-Intel engineer and utilizes NFC (near field communications) technology. Haloband is a silicone wristband which has an embedded NFC chip, which can be connected to a compatible smartphone (one which supports NFC). Once connected, the Haloband can be used to operate a set of functions by tapping your Android smartphone on your wrist. The band is also linked to a cloud-based account, which can be used to save the end-users’ ID and other information to share with other mobile devices.
Once the Haloband is set up with an Android phone, you can unlock the phone, take photos or send emergency alerts merely by tapping the phone on the band. The Haloband is capable of much more, just watch the official video from Haloband at the end of this article.
The project has so far raised almost double of its intended $10,000 Kickstarter goal and is looking like it would become a runaway success, however we would wait and watch. Though the early bird option is now closed, the Haloband is still available in black and white options for a nominal price of $25. The Kickstarter funding closes on 16th January and the bands would be ready to ship sometime in February.
The Haloband team envisaged the idea with good intentions in their hearts, as evidenced with what they had to say on their kickstarter page – “Everyone has trouble in locking and unlocking smartphones. The frequency usually hurts phones’ screen and keys, as well as our hearts. So we decided it’s time to do something.” The team plans to release an API for other developers to help them develop apps for the Haloband.
Does this device excite you? Let us know what you think in the comments below.
[videofile]https://d2pq0u4uni88oo.cloudfront.net/projects/697812/video-319910-h264_high.mp4[/videofile]
