Heart rate, burned calories, sleep quality: these are the domains most wearable technologies have traditionally focused on. But even if it’s well-known by this point how reflective our physical state is of our emotional well-being, there haven’t been many wearable devices that have focused this, despite how important it is to everyone.
Emotional intelligence is the understanding of a person’s emotions and how best to deal with them, which may not seem like a skill but most certainly is. The Moodmetric is aiming to help empower those who want to better track, share, and improve their emotional intelligence. The product is a stylish, yet understated ring that analyzes a persons mood, assigning it a mood level based on the stresses gleaned from the body’s nervous system through skin conductance. With this information literally at someone’s fingertips, learning about the situations which spike emotional levels along with techniques to calm one’s mind becomes much easier.
The Moodmetric use Bluetooth LE to work in tandem with a companion iOS app that takes that mood level and suggests mindfulness and meditation exercises to improve quality of life. The Moodmetric Black version is made of polycarbonate, high-gloss body with a steel ring for maximum contact, and goes for $179. The shinier, hand-crafted 14k gold version features a black agate stone top and gold plated ring for $3,950. The $50,000 is unclear as to when it is expected to be shipped.
The Moodmetric is a promising tool in the increasingly prominent field of emotionally-based wearables. While the Moodmetric is incredibly stylish, it simply doesn’t do enough when compared with the comparatively more functional Olive wristband. The Moodmetric’s actual metrics are a bit vague when compared to the specific data Olive provides, and Olive’s haptics provide a far more intuitive influence on one’s emotional state than manually checking an app.