We have seen BlackBerry concept designs before, but this concept may take away our need for BBM emoticons, forever. The Empathy pairs with a biometrics ring to send the user's emothional data to the crystal like device. The concept device was designed by Kiki Tang and Daniel Yoon for a RIM sponsored project at the Art Center College of Design. One of the designers describes the interface as follows:

"It is of course touch based and all the user’s connections are shown graphically so you can see who is connected to whom. Each contact has an avatar that is encompassed by two colored rings. The inner colored ring shows the contact’s previous emotional state, and the outer ring represents the contact’s current emotional state. It is important to show the shift in emotions in order to see how an event has affected that contact.

Another important feature that we felt was important was the “Emotional Health Chart”. This chart would monitor the user’s emotional health through an indefinite period of time. One would be able to see how a certain event, or phone call/ message has affected the user. Obviously, if the chart shows someone is always upset, there would be a problem… If permitted, a user would be able to view other user’s charts as well."

A very interesting concept. Though there is no technology that can accomplish this yet (there hasn't been any huge strides in mood ring technology), it doesn't mean there someday won't be. It we would be interesting to see my mood at the site of the dreaded hourglass, or my girlfriend's mood change the minute I bought my fourth BlackBerry of the year. Software aside, I actually like hardware concept (Gorilla Glass what?). It even sports a full qwerty keyboard on the reverse side! What do you all think? Let us know in the comments.

Source:  Yanko Design via Engadget