Are smart rings still a thing? Were they ever? While something of a blip on the screen in years past, smart rings kind of got lost in the jumble of emerging wearables — eclipsed by a galaxy of flashy smartwatches and fitness tracker bracelets. Yet, these tiny, unobtrusive wearables hung on in a kind of technical and popular limbo for a long time. Some smart rings are designed as fashion items, while others — some not even designed for full-time wear — fulfill a variety of specific purposes like NFC payments, sending and receiving notifications, controlling your smartphone, fitness functionality, and sleep tracking.
While they haven’t made as big a splash as a must-have item like the Apple Watch, perhaps it is time for smart rings to emerge as favored wearables with their own following. Smart rings can be more comfortable and useful than watches or bracelets because they are less obtrusive. And let’s face it, not everyone likes wearing something on their wrist all day and night. There are a number of smart rings out there and we have gathered a few models we like.
?URA Ring
The Oura Ring is an elegant minimalist smart ring that resembles a wedding band. It specifically tracks your activity, sleep, and readiness 24/7. It registers body temperature while you sleep and tracks your body temperature baseline and any variations to compare values over time. Infrared LEDs measure blood volume pulse from your finger’s palmar arteries. Its 3D accelerometer and gyroscope track the intensity of body movement for active and inactive intervals. The ring generates Readiness insights to help you aim for peak performance and determine when to rest and recharge. It shows how your body recovers from exercise, stress, and fatigue and reveals your heart rate variability. Using sleep as a springboard, Oura offers daily goals and helps you to balance activities to achieve optimal action and rest over time. In addition, it tracks daily activities, calories, and steps. Using the associated mobile app, you can also set daily targets. A new feature called Moment focuses on meditation with on-demand meditation tracking that measures resting heart rate and heart rate variability to measure the impact of meditation sessions, practices and effects on the body. The ring comes in silver, black, and Stealth in Balance or Heritage shapes. A Diamond model is $999.
Smart rings may be the next frontier for wearables [Digital Trends]