These days, fitness wearables are becoming more advanced than ever, with the Huami Amazfit X now being available for purchase on IndieGogo. It contains features like a PPG optical sensor to track your heart rate, and a 92-degree curved glass displays ergonomically shaped to fit your wrist. To fit all of its components into a tiny casing, it also uses effective PCB grounding design techniques. This allows the circuits to be small and advanced enough to fit into smart wearables.
A relatively new addition to the market is the Oura ring, which is a smart ring that has become one of the first consumer wearables to enter trials as an early warning system for the pandemic in late March of this year. Researchers invited around 150,000 Oura ring users to participate in the study in order to measure any symptoms and physical changes in the body that the tracker can detect. While the study is currently ongoing, a preliminary analysis of data has found that some patients don’t recover back to their baseline in terms of heart rate and respiration.
The Oura Ring has some notable features, which appear to go above and beyond its tiny size. It comes with a body temperature sensor, infrared sensing capabilities, as well as a 3D accelerometer and gyroscope to track your movements. You can use the dedicated Oura app to check on your sleep quality and duration. The app’s algorithm then incorporates this data into a “Readiness Score” (a grade from 1 to 100) of how ready you are to face the day’s trials.
On the Oura Ring app interface, there are four tabs you can toggle between. According to the company’s Chief Product Officer for Software, Chris Becherer, most users should start with the Sleep Tab. As well as your “Sleep Score” out of 100, it also includes data on total sleep, (at least seven to nine hours as prescribed by the National Sleep Foundation), efficiency (percentage of the actual time you spend asleep after going to bed), restfulness (the quality of sleep impacted by people who hog your blankets, nighttime noises, and spicy dinners), latency (how quickly you can power down your mind), and timing (a personalized guideline that tells you when to go to bed every night).
Becherer describes this as a “circadian rhythm concierge” that takes into account your exercise times, what time you have dinner, and how well you slept the night before. The second tab is The Readiness Tab, which we previously mentioned contains your “Readiness Score” for the day. It measures your recovery index depending on your heart rate, heart-rate variability balance (the variation in intervals between your heartbeats), and the activity balance (whether you’re ready for a challenging workout or need some rest).
Next is the Activity Tab, which gives you important information regarding your exercise metrics. It shows you how much you moved your body that day, how often you engage in exercise, how long it takes you to recover, your step count, and more. It tells you if you’re inactive for too long and need to get moving. However, one limitation according to their webpage is that for certain workouts with limited hand movements like yoga, Pilates, bicycling, or resistance training, Oura might have difficulty capturing accurate data. As a result, integrating workout data from Apple Health or Google Fit can help give you a clearer overview of your physical level.
Finally, the home screen gives you a complete overview of the essentials, including everything you need to get started with your day. It shows your readiness level, how long you’ve slept the night before, the types of exercise you’ve participated in over the course of the day, and a time log of how active (or inactive) you’ve been. To get you ready for your optimal bedtime, it also displays your nightly recommendation.
Currently, the Oura Ring is available for sale around $300 (Approx. ₹22,800) if you’re interested in purchasing it. It’s a sleek and stylish wellness tracker for the fashion-conscious and comes in a variety of sizes ranging from US 6 – US 13. However, it is on the pricey side of the spectrum, so there are other alternatives like the Motiv Ring if you’re looking for wearable jewelry. Do let us know your thoughts on the Oura Ring in the comments below. Follow gizarena on Facebook and Twitter for the latest updates.