Digital ring reprise?

Back in 2014 a campaign was launched by a company called Logbar to kickstart a concept called “Ring”. It was a wearable product that could detect gestures and function as an input device for your phone. The idea behind it was cool, but there was a lot of scepticism and the device was named: “worst product ever”. Ten years laters Samsung announces the Galaxy ring. I’m very curious how this product will develop.

Even though the Logbar Ring ended up as a failed kickstarter campaign, it did inspire others to explore how a digital could be meaningful. A company from Finland has worked on Oura Ring since 2015 and currently sells their Gen3 version of their product for €329,- (excluding the monthly subscription). The ring is sleek and compact and mainly focuses on sleep insights and uses infrared LEDs and photodiodes sensors to figure out your heart rate and temperature. An accelerometer and gyroscope is also present to track your movements. These insights combined delivers you information to improve your sleep quality. The Oura Ring can also help you track your health and fitness but that is not necessarily its strong suite. Wearing this jewellery while being active might not be very pleasant.

Unlike the Logbar ring this device solely functions as a health sensor and has no other interactions with your phone. No gesture features or other interface elements are present; it’s only simple task is to “measure” you. The upcoming Samsung ring also focusses on health but some patents unveil some possible connection with your smart home and also offer some sort of input that can be used in app.

I’m curious to see if Samsung manages to avoid the gesture-drama and create something truly meaningful.The release is planned this year; let’s wait and see…