The Vatican has just launched their new eRosary.
Yes, this is a real thing, and it’s rather innovative.
The eRosary has been launched in October by the Pope’s Worldwide Prayer Network as part of their Click to Pray initiative. Users activate this smart bracelet by making a sign of the cross:
When activated, the user has the possibility to choose either to pray the standard rosary, a contemplative Rosary and different kinds of thematic rosaries that will be updated every year. Once the prayer begins, the smart rosary shows the user’s progress throughout the different mysteries and keeps track of each rosary completed.
Among its many features include “tracking of your health and personal data, to encourage you to live a healthy lifestyle”, as well as an associated app which educates on various details of Catholic doctrine.
Notwithstanding my usual concern with organisations harvesting and using excessive amounts of personal data, their use of a pedometer’s motion tracking and data storage systems is quite a resourceful and nicely fitting approach to adding 21st century technology to an ancient act of devotion.