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Placing your wrist under a tap of running water is an age-old trick to cool yourself down when starting to overheat.

But not everyone has a tap or cold flannel to hand.

With this in mind, a team of students has developed a bracelet that acts like a wearable air conditioning unit for your wrist.

Called Wristify, the band directs either cool or warm air to the surface of a wearer's skin to balance the body's temperature.

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Wristify (concept illustrated) was developed by embr labs and is a finalist in Intel's annual Make It Wearable competition. The bracelet provides heating or cooling to the wearer's skin by pointing waves or air at the skin's thermoreceptors. It glows blue when cooling the skin, and orange while warming it

Wristify was developed by Matthew Smith, Sam Shames, Megha Jain and David Cohen-Tanugi from MIT, who recently set up embr labs.

However, unlike a true air conditioner, the device only adjusts the temperature of the wrist, and not the humidity. 

Last year, the team's concept won the $10,000 (£6,100) first prize in the Making and Designing Materials Engineering Contest at the Massachusetts-based university, and it is now a finalist in Intel's Make it Wearable competition.

As a result, the team has been awarded an additional $50,000 (£30,700) to help make the band a reality.

In addition to the prize money, all finalists are given mentorship and technical support from the Santa Clara-based tech giant.

A prototype version has been developed, and is undergoing tests. 

Designer Niccolo Casas has also created a concept illustration of what the final model will look like.

As the company explained: 'Wristify uses all-natural waves of coolness or heat to activate the thermoreceptors on the surface of your skin, leaving you feeling rejuvenated.

'It gently glows blue when cooling you, and glows a warm orange while heating you up.

'Our comfort depends on a lot more than just core temperature, and we have drawn on the last 30 years of thermal comfort research to design a device for maximised comfort that is also discreet and energy-efficient.

The winner of Intel's competition will be announced on 3 November.

embr labs said the team is working to develop the Wristify bracelet 'as fast as possible', but did not reveal when it would be available or how much it is likely to cost.

The team has created a prototype (illustrated) and recently received $50,000 (£30,700) in funding. Winners of the Intel competition will be unveiled on 3 November. embr labs said the team is working to develop the Wristify bracelet 'as fast as possible', but did not reveal when it would be available or how much it is likely to cost

An air conditioner for your wrist! Bracelet cools or heats hand

Cooling a wrist can cool or heat the rest of a person's body because it is a pulse point - meaning the temperature change reaches the blood sooner.

'At embr labs, we are driven by a shared belief in the importance of connecting mind, body and environment,' continued the firm.

'Using our patent-pending technology, we're working hard to make a piece of jewellery that actually does something.

'In fact, we think it will change how the world thinks about wearables and comfort.'