Do you remember as a child when you got your first mood ring and it was the coolest thing ever? Offering you the ability to “guess” your friends moods, just by having them wear it? It was the hottest piece of technology (even though there was no formal technology behind it) and all it did was measure the mood using body heat.

Well, times have changed and we have a bit more money/technology behind us to bring such ideas to life these days.

This being said, recently RIM invested in a design course at the Art Center College of Design, with intentions of finding the brightest, most creative minds to inspire future device ideas. The result? The BlackBerry Empathy Concept phone, designed by students Kiki Tang and Daniel Yoon. Made to look like a diamond (very reminiscent of the Windows powered HTC Touch Diamond from a few years back), but with internals made to detect both your mood and your contacts mood. It also comes equipped with its own biometrics ring and will check your heart rate, blood pressure, and body temperature but updates accordingly based on your mood.

It is described as:

“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.”

Watch the promo video:

[Click here for mobile friendly viewing]

So what do you think? Gimmick or not, would you buy it?

[via IntoMobile, Source Engadget]