Blackberry Empathy Concept Phone

Sometimes looking at gadget websites is the way to see what artists are up to. Concept designers such as Kiki Tang and Daniel Yoon put their minds to work bringing to breathing new life into things such as cellphones and cars. Hence, the Blackberry Empathy concept.

     The phone, in my personal opinion, isn't very nice to look at, trying entirely too hard to be futuristic in its resemblance of a shard of very thick crystal. It turns from black to clear when not in use, which is interesting, but the buttons look like they'd be hard, at best, to push.
     The idea behind the phone is the real attention-grabber. It comes with a ring that one can choose to wear or not (the phone will work regardless of whether you have the ring on your finger) that senses the mood of the wearer. It also senses the mood of other people in the room who are also wearing the rings, and lets one know if they're in a mood for conversation or not. While this seems less like an advancement in technology and more like a step in the disturbing direction of doing away with a simple "how are you?", it's an idea that hasn't come before.