NFC Powered Contact-Me Ring

Hello everyone!

In this Instructable, I'll show you how to make a Contact-Me Ring 💍

What is a Contact-Me ring, dude🤔?

It's a simple ring made out of PLA that has an NFC sticker pasted onto it. NFC stands for Near-Field Communication, a form of short ranged wireless communication. NFC stickers can store information that can be transmitted to a device that can read NFC tags. Most of the smartphones support NFC reading capability. All we need to do is bring our smartphone very close to an NFC sticker to read the stored data.

Ok cool, but why an NFC powered ring🤔?

Well, whenever I got out to network with groups of people, I either pass around my smartphone or show a QR code to give my contact info. Some people use business cards to do the same. Atleast for me, this way of giving out my info every time is inconvenient and pretty lame.

So I thought why not encode my contact info like my phone number or email address or my socials into an NFC sticker and use it as a ring. This way whenever I need to pass along my contact info I can just ask the receiver to bring their smartphone close to my ring, and viola the person has it! Also, a beautiful ring will just add to my fashion sense😎(well it could be a wrist band as well, but sticking with a ring here).

Time to get into the meat of the project. But before that, let's assemble all our tools⚙️

For this project, you'll require the following tools -

Hardware -

1. 3D Printer. If you don't have one, utilize an online service. This is what I'm doing for this instructable since I don't own one.
2. A 15cm ruler to measure the dimensions of your NFC sticker, which will later be used to accurately design the ring in Fusion 360 or TinkerCad
3. An NFC sticker.(buy here)
4. A smartphone.
5. A clean sheet of paper (like from a notebook)
6. A scissor to cut certain unwanted edges off from the NFC sticker (optional)

Software -

1. Fusion 360 or TinkerCad. If you have never used these CAD (Computer Aided Design) apps, don't worry as I'll provide a very detailed yet compact breakdown of using it to create our ring design.
2. An NFC reader/writer app on your smartphone. I've an Android device, hence I'll be using this app called NFC Tools. You can find similar apps for IOS.

So are you ready to jump into this exciting project? Well, I thought so🤩

Let's goooo!

Usually ring sizes are standardized and you can look up one on the internet to get your size. I referred to my Amazon purchase history to get my size. Its US 9, which equates to a diameter of 19 mm. So I'm gonna take this measurement to design the ring in rest of this instructable.

In case if you want to measure your ring size to be more sure, follow the below steps -

Steps -

• Cut out a strip of paper or a string of yarn.
• Take the starting point of this strip of paper(or yarn) and start wrapping it around your finger( the one on which you would like to wear the ring) until it's taut. Now mark the section of paper that overlaps with the starting point.
• Measure the length of this segment. This length will serve the approx circumference of your ring.
• Now using the formula for circumference of circle (2*pi*radius), calculate your diameter (2*radius).

• Now we need to measure the dimensions of our NFC tag. Since I'm using a circular NFC sticker, I'll measure its diameter using the ruler.
• It comes out to be 2 cm. We'll keep it as 2.5 cm or 25mm to account for manufacturing imperfections.

In the video above, first I explain in detail on how to create the ring using Fusion 360. The same process with some minor adjustments can also be replicated for TinkerCAD. The second video shows the time-lapse creation of the ring in TinkerCAD.

After creating the ring I show you how to export the file to .OBJ format.

I then sent this file to an online 3d printing service to get my ring manufactured and delivered. Depending on your place of stay you may have different options if you don't own a 3d printer. For me, I chose this service - Robu.in

Now let's wait for the ring to be manufactured and delivered⌛.

In the meantime, let's add the core functionality of our project i.e. storing contact information in our NFC sticker.

Here's what you need to do -

1. Download NFC Tools app on your android device.
2. Click on Write>Add a record>Contact .
3. Enter relevant contact information that you wanna share like phone number, email etc.
4. Click on OK.
5. On the next screen tap on Write button. This will prompt you to bring your device close to the NFC tag. Once you do so, the information gets written onto the tag.
6. Test by closing the app and bringing your device close to the NFC tag. Your device will prompt you to select an account to store the contact information.

Follow the screen recording above if you face any difficulties.

Now that you've your ring, its time to complete it.

Take out your NFC sticker and paste it onto the surface holder we created during our design phase.

The ring should look similar to the above given image. And, viola! Your Contact-Me ring loaded with your contact information is ready to be used🥳.

Now go to that networking session and surprise your new connects!

This section of the instructable is to highlight the fact that I'm not very comfortable with the use of plastic in the creation of the ring as it's a non-biodegradable material that is harmful to our environment and climate.

But plastic is undeniably also a wonderful material that serves a lot of industries such as food packaging, chemical industries etc. because of its versatility. Hence, its usage can't be completely eliminated, at least for the time being until we discover a greener material better than plastic or find economical ways to mass produce current alternative green solutions.

So for the moment what we all can do in our little ways to protect our planet is adopt responsible plastic consumption habits. With regards to projects such as this one, following options can be helpful -

1. Design your products using materials that last long and easily recyclable when it reaches its end of life. For example, manufacturing this ring using metal can make it last longer as well as recyclable when it attains its end of life or when you get bored with the current design. But metal could be expensive and harder to manufacture, causing you to stick with plastic. If that's the case, check out option 2.
2. Design your plastic product in such a way that it utilizes least amount of material possible and can be as homogenous as possible. You can always come up with clever ways to design your product such that it retains its structural integrity and aesthetic appeal but at the same time uses less plastic material (generative design can be an helpful tool). Designing a product that uses a single type of plastic is very essential to making the product recyclable at its EOL.
3. When you get bored with your current product or when the product hits its EOL naturally, dispose it a way that it doesn't get intermixed with other types of plastic waste. Intermixing reduces the efficiency of recycling infrastructure to recycle the product back to its raw form for further use.

So those are some small steps you can adapt to live a greener life and contribute to a healthier planet🌍