Geek Rings

I love the idea of secret encoded rings, and binary code fits the bill. Although I am no expert in it, I have a rough understanding. My boyfriend has a background in computer engineering and I’m sure would explain it more in depth to me. Basically, numbers can be used to signify letters of the alphabet.

The way it is used in these jewellery applications is as such: 00001 is one and also “A”, 00010 is two and also “B” 00011 is three and also “C” and so on. A ‘track’ is engraved to show a 1 and left blank for a 0. Therefore, there is a physical representation of the letter…which is actually a number. (Is that clear as mud for you?)

Here are some neat ideas for a ring for the computer literate man in your life.

This one on the left is from ecologically minded greenKarat. It’s a custom design that starts at around $1000.

Jonathan Ben-Tovim does “encoder rings.” They kind of look like braille, no?  Ben-Tovim is actually an industrial designer, but chose rings as a way to store personal information by using binary code. The rings are limited to a 64 character message, but that’s a lot longer than what you can get by just engraving. Besides, that’s so 19th century!

Ben-Tovim's clear binary ring

[via: The Carrot Box]

Fancy Jewels in Seattle also did a custom binary ring for a client:

Perhaps one with gemstones?

Bonus: Sculptor Gideon Weisz also does a version of a binary ring.