Spktrl's AI-powered diamond ring promises to reduce screen use

French start-up Spktrl has developed a smart ring embedded with a 1.5-carat diamond that flashes in different colours to alert the wearer of their most pressing notifications, enabling more time spent phone-free. Spktrl was founded by Katia de Lasteyrie, a former innovation lead at luxury conglomerate LVMH, who set out to create a wearable tech The post Spktrl's AI-powered diamond ring promises to reduce screen use appeared first on Dezeen.

Spktrl's AI-powered diamond ring promises to reduce screen use
Spktrl smart ring on a black backdrop

French start-up Spktrl has developed a smart ring embedded with a 1.5-carat diamond that flashes in different colours to alert the wearer of their most pressing notifications, enabling more time spent phone-free.

Spktrl was founded by Katia de Lasteyrie, a former innovation lead at luxury conglomerate LVMH, who set out to create a wearable tech object that is also a piece of high jewellery.

Woman wearing a ring with a glowing green diamond
Spktrl has created an AI-powered smart ring

Driven by artificial intelligence (AI), the Spktrl Light Ring limits how often the wearer is interrupted by alerts from their smartphone, applying filters so only urgent messages are signalled .

A system of personalised, colour-coded signals indicates the priority of incoming phone calls or messages, alerting users to key work-related contacts or messages from loved ones.

Three Spktrl smart rings on a display
A colourless lab-grown diamond is embedded in the centre

Most of the time, the ring's colourless lab-grown diamond remains inactive as notifications are silenced, encouraging users to check their phone only when absolutely necessary.

According to de Lasteyrie, the product offers a novel take on the concept of time being the ultimate luxury by shielding users from the constant distractions that are an inevitable consequence of living with modern technologies.

Hand wearing a Spktrl smart ring on a black backdrop
The diamond lights up in different colours

"Spktrl stands for the ideal of 'quiet tech' – technology designed not to demand attention, but to refine it," she told Dezeen. "It's intuitive and invisible, embedded in an object of meaning rather than distraction."

The ring connects with the user's smartphone via low-energy Bluetooth and operates through a pared-back companion app.

It uses a self-learning AI model to adapt the colour, rhythm and brightness of notifications based on the wearer's habits and contextual factors such as time of day or location.

Spktrl smart ring on a white backdrop
It was designed to alert the wearer of their most pressing notifications

Users can also personalise what messages they see and when they see them.

"Spktrl is designed for those looking to improve their digital lifestyle without relinquishing the convenience of having a smartphone or simply blocking it altogether," de Lasteyrie explained.

"Its gatekeeper architecture is based on the user's interaction preferences and quietly learns how to improve them over time."

Spktrl recognises three different notification categories and associates each with a different colour – green for work, blue for family  and purple for social.

Users can customise the hue, saturation and brightness, but the core colours remain the same and were chosen for their instant recognisability across cultures and contexts.

"Colour perception is one of the fastest cognitive processes, interpreted by the brain even before shape or language," de Lasteyrie said. "That speed is evolutionarily rooted. Colour helped early humans detect threats (blood, predators), opportunities (ripe fruit) and safe environments (greenery, water)."

Hand holding a ring up to a colour chart
The colours were chosen for their instant recognisability

"These primal associations continue to shape how we interpret colour today, making it one of the most efficient, intuitive vectors for meaning," she added. "These choices aren't universal, but they're widely legible across many cultural contexts."

"To keep the system intuitive, we also assign pulse rhythms: faster for urgent messages, slower for softer ones."

The ring itself is designed to subvert expectations of technology and the function of jewellery. Its pared-back form references the structure and sculptural balance of Art Deco architecture as well as the rawness of Brutalism.

Ring model and pincers
The diamond functions as a window for light and radio frequency signals

De Lasteyrie explained that the decision to design a ring was informed by the object's history as a wearable symbol of identity, status and power.

"Unlike a bracelet or pendant, a ring lives on the hand, at the edge of every gesture," she pointed out. "It's intimate. Your gaze returns to it constantly – it becomes part of your cognitive landscape."

"For Spktrl, the ring is more than an adornment; it's an interface between self and society, signal and silence," the designer added. "A medium for a new kind of sensorial language – a meta-language, if you will – that bypasses text or sound and speaks through light."

Spktrl smart ring
It will be available for pre-order in the third quarter of 2025

Set in a gold basket, the lab-grown diamond helps to diffuse the coloured light and functions as a material window for light and radio frequency signals, including Bluetooth.

The Light Ring is Spktrl's debut product and will be available for pre-order in the third quarter of 2025, with products expected to be delivered in mid-2026.

Other products that use artificial intelligence to wean people off their phones include Rabbit's R1 "pocket companion" and the Terra compass for phone-free walks.

The post Spktrl's AI-powered diamond ring promises to reduce screen use appeared first on Dezeen.

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