The Java Ring: A Wearable Computer (1998)

Posted by cromulent 5 days ago

Comments

Comment by jasongill 2 hours ago

I had one of these as well as a handful of iButtons. I think I still have them in my box of "maybe this will be useful some day" electronic junk that will never be useful. I got them, as well as some iButton readers of different shapes and sizes, as free samples from Dallas Semiconductor back in 1999 just because I thought they were neat. Never found a use for them, but it was fun to have a "class ring"-size ring that contained some favorite bookmarks.

I have only seen iButton's "in the wild" in one use case - for tracking the nightly rounds of security guards in commercial buildings/industrial complexes. You've probably seem small round discs on the wall in office buildings (normally a round disc with a concentric ring); those are iButton terminals. The guards each have a keychain with an iButton, and as they do their rounds they press it on the terminal to record proof that they went to each terminal at the proper time. Obviously this is a use-case for NFC or a variety of other technologies but for some reason I've seen the iButton-based systems used in a half dozen buildings.

Comment by mbreese 1 hour ago

Same. I know I have a couple someplace in a bin. That and another embedded card from the era, but I think it had something like a DIMM footprint. I thought it was also Dallas semi, but I can’t find it or remember what it is though…

I remember thinking that some of the tracking features (temperature) of the button would be helpful in some situations. But the ring was the crazy model. Between these and smart cards, authentication was starting to look futuristic. I even remember getting a smart card reader from my credit card company. They thought it would make for more secure web transactions.

I’ve still seen some iButtons in the wild in odd places. Most recently, I saw them tracking car keys at dealerships. The last car I test drove had a key attached to a fob with an iButton. I was more excited by the iButton tracker than the car.

But I thought of it as an example of how long lasting some design decisions can really be. I’m sure someone designed this system 20-25 years ago and it is still in service today. I’m sure today it would be NFC. But now I’m thinking about what the iButton of 2050 will look like.

Comment by fredoralive 56 minutes ago

I think I’ve seen iButtons used occasionally on self checkouts for staff authentication (age check or the scales fucking up like they always do etc.), although with most they just use a magic barcode or a pin / password.

Comment by elric 56 minutes ago

I used to frequent a bar where the staff had Java Rings to authenticate with the register. Touch the ring to the register, enter the order, done. Sadly the bar no longer exists.

Comment by fainpul 2 hours ago

> the same functionality in a watch or a belt buckle.

Trying to imagine some guy tapping the terminal with his belt buckle :)

Comment by IAmBroom 48 minutes ago

And the awkward meeting in HR that followed.

Comment by kawsper 2 hours ago

I have one of those somewhere, I thought it was a cool piece of tech history.

Comment by Doches 2 hours ago

Me, too! I worked at Sun from 2002-2004, and some of us got them as pointlessly fancy door badges for datacenter access. In hindsight it was such a novelty, almost a gag, but they were kind of awesome for what they were. And you felt like an absolute badass when using one to badge in!

Comment by PanoptesYC 1 hour ago

> Even 6 K is enough to hold your secret codes, your credit cards numbers, your driver license, other wallet contents, and even some electronic cash.

What was electronic cash referring to in 1998?

Comment by bux93 35 minutes ago

For example, the proton stored-value debit card, launched in 1995 in Belgium https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Proton_(debit_card) or Danmønt, from 1992 in Denmark which was compatible with the domestic Dankort debit card. VISA cash was theoretically available in 1995, and heavily java based according to https://web.archive.org/web/20211222162640/https://www.it.uc...

Comment by monsieurbanana 1 hour ago

Could be one of these:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mondex

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ecash

> Chaum published the idea of anonymous electronic money in a 1983 paper; eCash software on the user's local computer stored money in a digital format, cryptographically signed by a bank

Comment by fredoralive 53 minutes ago

Octopus cards had already been introduced in Hong Kong, and I think similar cards had been trialled elsewhere, so it might be that sort of thing they’re thinking of?