Thinking more about help for people who may have problems with dexterity found the idea of the NFC Ring quite exciting. Enabling devices as not just wearable technology but jewellery? Unlock doors by wearing jewellery [BBC]
Visit the NFC Ring KickStarter campaign for a video they used that explains the concept and potential uses. This particular project is so new that their NFC Ring blog posts are all about fundraising to get enough money to put it into production though it would appear to be available for sale soon.
Near field communication (NFC) is a set of standards for smartphones and similar devices to establish radio communication with each other by touching them together or bringing them into close proximity, usually no more than a few inches.
Now this ring wouldn’t do anything on it’s own you need to have another device that is NFC enabled, many new smartphones/tables already incorporate this technology. But you could look upon such a ring as an extra button that would do something on the other device as long as the ring is held close to the e.g. phone or tablet device. If you use a fob at work to electronically open doors it’s a very similar principle. Could imagine this also being useful to people who find it difficult to bend their fingers e.g. arthritis in joints.
There are some practical issues like getting the size of fit of the ring right!
Keep an eye on their Twitter account @nfcring for latest developments