Image Credit : Art Direction: Will Geddes (with Character)
Photographer: Todd Tankersley
Project Overview
Nod is a universal wireless controller for manipulating content on one’s TV, computer, smart phone, or any other device that requires interaction with digital media. Simply wear Nod on your finger like a ring and gesture naturally to operate devices around you. Point, wave and twist your hand in the air to control your TV or computer; glide across Nod’s gestural onscreen keyboard to type; rotate your hand to adjust temperature on your thermostat, and much more. Nod is a radical new type of product that lets us control the technology around us in an easier and more natural way.
Project Commissioner
Project Creator
Team
Industrial Design: Dan Harden, Eliot Ortiz
Mechanical Engineering: Bob Riccomini, David Kirkland, Hardy Shen, Marco Berkhout
Project Brief
Every once in a while a product comes along and completely redefines a category. The light bulb, the sewing machine, the Walkman....Nod is that kind of product and here's why:
Since the invention of the computer many decades ago, onscreen media control and manipulation has been done with keyboards, remote controls, or mice. Whether you’re creating words and images on a computer or controlling a TV, you need one of these devices. However these typical input devices require a learned skill and are often slow, and they can even cause pain. With the plethora of technology in our lives today, it was time to rethink the input device.
Unlike any previous input device, Nod uses one of the oldest forms of communication to control content: human gestures. Simply wave, point, swipe, and twist your hand and fingers in big motions or small to control content on your host device. It feels magical when you use it yet so familiar too, mostly because we all gesture without even knowing it. Hence Nod presents an effortless way to breeze through data, change settings, type, or fly through a fun game.
Project Innovation/Need
The project was made possible due to miniaturized technology, advancements in accelerometers, and new small batteries.
However, our real achievement was to see this opportunity and integrate these advancements into a tiny, compelling and comfortable form that people would love - a ring.
Many elements make Nod novel and innovative, including its materials, forms, ergonomics and construction technique. A few details:
- Curvy forms give Nod its jewelry-like appeal, but those curves also serve to secure it comfortably between the fingers, with a positive and negative curve like a good tea cup handle.
- Nod comes in 12 sizes (4 housing sizes plus 3 varying thickness stainless steel ring inserts).
- In addition to the gesture sensitive accelerometers, Nod has a thumb trackpad on top flanked by four programmable switches for even more control versatility.
- Nod’s construction is innovative. A single flex circuit wraps in an S shape around the inside of the circular ring and then around the battery, making an efficient package. The housing is ultrasonically sealed shut so it is waterproof.
- The recharger resembles a precious ring case...how appropriate!
Design Challenge
- Design a gesture-based control device that was so small it could be worn like a ring, thus creating a new usage paradigm and a new device category.
- Create an ergonomically perfect solution whereby it was so comfortable that you’d never need to take it off. We also needed to devise a clever and cost effective way to offer many sizes so it would fit everyone’s finger.
- Incorporate the latest state of the art miniature technology including processors, accelerometers, switches, and a mini battery that could last at least a few days between charges.
- Create a sophisticated appearance that was similar to jewelry in form, finish and materials in order to encourage acceptance of this wearable device.
- Design and engineer a robust product that was waterproof, sweat proof, and drop proof especially because it was to be a ring, which takes a beating.
Sustainability
One of Nod’s best attributes is its sustainability factor because it is so tiny, needing little material in its construction, little power to function, and little to throw away at lifecycle end. Nod replaces and makes obsolete other control devices like keyboards, mice and game controllers - that are not sustainable. Unlike those conventional products Nod is gesture based. It responds to hand, arm and finger movement, therefore much of the energy required to perform its function is actually human energy.
This tiny little device represents a future where technology and minimal design contribute so much to a products sustainability proposition. When you can achieve vastly increased performance but do it with vastly decreased material and energy consumption, that’s simply the greatest form of sustainability.
Product Design - Personal Use
This award celebrates creative and innovative design for either a component or overall product. Consideration given to aspects that relate to human usage, aesthetics, selection of components and materials, and the resolution of assembly, manufacturing and the overall function.
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