Move over, mood rings: monitor your mental state with high-tech W/Me wristband

If you haven’t jumped on the fitness-tracking wristbands that are becoming ever-popular, like the FitBit Flex, Jawbone UP and the Nike FuelBand, you’ve likely at least started seeing people sporting them. They’ll tell you how many calories you burn, how many steps you’ve taken, even how well you've slept. But one company thinks that these wristbands should do more.

California company Phyode has set up a Kickstarter campaign for the W/Me wristband, which they say goes beyond tracking your fitness, and focuses on your overall well-being:

“After years of research and development, we’ve made a device that can coach your rhythmic breathing, regulate your autonomic nervous system and heart rate variation,” said company co-founder Daniel Weng in the Kickstarter video pitch. “In other words, it can visualize your breathing, show your emotions, vitality, and most importantly improve your health.”

[ Related: Jawbone attempts to overcome catastrophe with Up ‘lifestyle wristband’ ]

Using a medical-grade sensor, the W/Me wristband tracks your heart rate and breathing, and based on that information, gives you an indication of your current mental state. The idea is you can then use this information to focus and shift your mood, thus making you a generally happier, less-stressed person.

You get this information via a special LED readout on the wristband, similar in appearance to the Nike FuelBand. It connects with your smartphone via Bluetooth 4.0, which gives you more functionality with the companion app, Tech Crunch reports.

While the W/Me certainly uses more science than the mood rings of yesteryear, it’s hard not to be a little skeptical that this information can read your mood any better than mood rings could with body heat. I can’t help but think back to the “Vitality Sensor” pitched by Nintendo in 2009, and then curiously never heard from again.

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Skepticism aside, there certainly seems to be a demand for the technology: with 31 days left in the KickStarter campaign, the W/Me project has already reached its $100,000 goal, with $101,377 pledged so far. If you’d like to get your hands on the device and find out how it works for yourself, you can order one from the KickStarter campaign for $139 USD, which is comparable to the other tracker wristbands currently on the market.

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