Blinking rings

A glowing red LED on a piece of jewellery, such as a ring, could tell you
you’ve just lost a fortune on the stock market, say researchers at IBM. Dan
Russell at IBM’s Almaden Research Center in San Jose, California, is
incorporating microwave radio links, conforming to the Bluetooth standard for
wireless networking, into rings. These could change colour to tell you when your
share portfolio has just dropped through the floor, or simply when a new e-mail
has arrived, he says. Russell is also working on earrings with built-in
speakers, and pendants with built-in microphones.