Smart wedding ring allows you to feel your partner’s HEARTBEAT in real time

If you’re always wondering why your partner hasn’t responded to your messages, a smart ring that assures you they’re still alive could be just what you’re looking for.

The £400 HB ring lets you feel your partner’s heartbeat in real time by tapping it twice.

As long as your partner’s phone is connected to the internet, your ring will pulse in the same pattern as your partner’s heart.

It also flashes a red line around the rim to animate the heartbeat like a hospital electrocardiogram, making it a quirky alternative to the classic gold wedding ring.

It follows the introduction of a new smart ring for women that monitors the wearer’s menstrual cycle and sleep patterns.

The rechargeable ring is the creation of a Czech company called The Touch, which also sells smart lockets and other connected jewelry.

“HB Ring is the first and only smart ring of its kind,” the company says on its website.

“It allows you to feel and keep forever the most precious item you have in your life: the heartbeat of your loved ones.”

HB Ring detects the wearer’s pulse and passes this information to a companion app.

Since two wearers of the rings can be connected through the app, each user can simply double-tap their ring to see and feel the other’s heartbeat.

The heart rates are real-time measurements unless the other wearer is offline (in this case it is the heart rate from when they were last online).

Starting from $499 (£400) for one ring, it comes in a variety of colors including rose gold and jet black.

One couple who exchanged HB rings on their wedding day is Jiri and Ondrej Vedral from the Czech Republic, according to the BBC.

Every time Jiri presses his wedding ring, it pulses with Ondrej’s heartbeat, displaying the heartbeat as a moving red line – and vice versa.

The couple chose the HB Ring instead of the more traditional gold or silver rings, although they do have to take them off regularly to charge them.

“We were never interested in gold and diamonds,” Jiri said. “We wanted something different, so we thought it was a good idea that this was something new. We feel like pioneers in that.’

In Western society, the ring finger of the left hand is commonly believed to be associated with the traditional belief known as vena amoris (“love vein”).

About 6,000 years ago, people began wearing rings on this finger, believing that the so-called vein is directly connected to the heart, the company says.

While this vein was later proven to not exist, The Touch pushes tradition “one step further” by making it feel like your ring finger is actually connected to your partner’s heart.

Smart rings – an alternative to more conventional wearables like smartwatches – are often used for body tracking and even contactless payments.

But other more unusual uses include determining Covid symptoms and even turning a wall into a giant touchscreen.

Another prototype smart ring, presented by scientists in 2017, can warn the wearer of explosive and biological attacks.

At this year’s Consumer Electronics Show (CES) in Las Vegas, LA health tech Movano showed off its Evie ring, a ring designed with women in mind.

The ring reads stats including heart rate, breathing rate, skin temperature, menstrual and ovulation symptom tracking, and menstrual symptom tracking.

It further claims to be able to use this biometric data – which also records blood oxygen levels and sleep patterns – to track the user’s mood.

A smartphone app then aggregates this information and gives the user “personalized insights” in an app, enabling them to change their lifestyle.

The aluminum ring – available in pink, gold or silver – will be available later this year and will cost $300 (just under £250).

Another wearable company called Nowatch caught the eye at CES when it showed off its bezel-less smartwatch that doesn’t even tell the time.