In the 1970s, mood rings were a hip fashion. It might be time to update that look with some 21st century digital technology. We currently have the ability to detect mood through skin contact, pulse, and other measurable results. What if our phones could take those measurements and reflect our mood in our ring tones?
The technology exists, but it just requires some creative assembly. Affecta has developed a sensor that detects emotions through the skin. Jawbone has also developed a sophisticated wristband and App called “Up” which takes data from your movements transmits the results to your iPhone. By combining these two technologies, one could create a product to interpret our emotional states to our phones and trigger the appropriate “mood ring" for any attitude.
The iOS App Store already includes a mood ring app for iPhones, but it’s more of a colorful screensaver than an actual mood indicator. You have to actively touch your finger to the screen to get any reading, and there’s a disclaimer on the app reminding users that it in no way tells their actual mood.
Meanwhile, companies like Affecta are advancing actual mood detector technology with a bracelet that accurately detects your mood using galvanic skin response, records this data, and even tweets mood updates. Although it’s pricey ($2,000), we are likely only a few short years and some entrepreneurial spirit away from a commercial device for this purpose.
The iOS Mood RingTone would be a cheaper and subtler version of the same idea. Instead of tweets, the Mood RingTone would select a ringtone based on your detected mood. If you’re feeling down, your phone might play “Mr. Lonely” by Akon or another sad song of your choosing. Our IPhones already provide the soundtracks to our lives, why not bring some actual bio-feedback to that trend?
What tones would you choose to reflect your mood? Here are a few of our suggestions:
Angry - “People of the Sun,” Rage Against the Machine
Lazy - “The Lazy Song,” Bruno Mars
Happy - “Here Comes The Sun,” the Beatles
Hopeful - “Call Me Maybe,” Carly Rae Jepson
Sad - “Cry Me A River,” Justin Timberlake
Nervous – The Flight of the Bumblebee, Nikolai Rimsky-Korsakov