Hello, Samsung. Welcome to the Ring!

The Samsung Galaxy ring was unveiled for the first time at the Mobile World Congress 2024, and drew a lot of attention. Allison Johnson from The Verge, captioned her article on the tech giant’s wearable, as the company’s? “big ambition for the future of health at home and centered around this ring wearable”. Going by this analysis one can conclude that Samsung is heading nose first into preventive healthcare. Preventive health or democratizing medicine is a mammoth goal for the whole world, and the entry Samsung is welcome and long-overdue.

The details about the ring, beyond its form factor were lacking, and while Samsung has always had a long history of innovative products with cutting edge technology, it was surprising when the articles that were posted about the ring hardly mentioned the unique features of this wearable. However some of the details that were revealed during the conference do give us an insight into what Samsung is planning with this ring, and what the expected features could be.

Let’s dive into what Samsung has revealed about their Galaxy Smart Ring at the MWC, and learn what makes dhyana stand apart from it.

All about vitality

The key announcement that accompanied the unveiling of the ring at the MWC was the differentiating feature of the Galaxy Ring from the rest of the rings in the market: The Vitality Score.?

Maria Diaz of ZDNET, describes the Galaxy Ring’s stand out feature as “the 'My Vitality Score,' a way to intelligently track your physical readiness and mental preparedness to tackle the day based on your sleep, activity, and heart-rate data.“

While many journalists mention that this score is similar to the Readiness score tracked by Oura or the Body Battery by Garmin, Samsung’s approach is surely to be lauded as its approach is, in its own words, holistic.?

But what do these phrases such as ‘readiness’, ‘vitality’ and ‘body battery’ mean, and how are they holistic?

Decoding the jargon

The term 'readiness' was popularized by Oura, and can be found on multiple devices from Fitbit to Ultrahuman. These companies, on their websites, say that this score is an analysis of how capable your body is for action or a workout. By tracking patterns such as your sleep, activity patterns and your HRV (heart rate variability) at various points of the day, they can pinpoint to your readiness.

Looking into scholarly work, we have tried to analyze the link between HRV and readiness. In 2009, Donovan L. Fogt, Paige J. Cooper, Christine N. Freeman, John E. Kalns and William H. Cooke's article 'Heart Rate Variability to Assess Combat Readiness' in the publication Military Medicine, analyzed HRV and its impact on Combat Readiness.

In the article the team had demonstrated that an HRV indicator: R-R intervals, which is the time between consecutive heart beats, correlates to VO2 Max, which is the maximum oxygen an individual can consume during a heavy workout. As any fitness geek would know, VO2 Max is an excellent indicator of overall fitness.

Through this article it was shown how HRV could become a determinant factor indicating fatigue or its vice-versa 'readiness'.

While companies have since then appropriated this term to add metrics such as one's sleep quality, dhyana goes one step forward by adding one's mindfulness exercise into the mix. HRV is a physio-psychological term, indicating that it's affected by the body's fitness as well as the mind's agility. Meditation or mindfulness is an excellent means of getting one's HRV working for them, helping them improve their readiness score overall.

The Galaxy ring mentioning that their 'Vitality Score' tracks one's mental preparedness gives the impression that they too realize the importance of mental strengthening and conditioning, however that is yet to be seen.

While dhyana goes one step ahead of the rest, 'readiness' shouldn't stop there. The term can further be strengthened by the addition of nutrition tracking. Nutrition plays an important role in determining one's Autonomic response, hence either improving or degrading one's HRV.

?Runnin’ in circles

Matt Evans from TechRadar reported on his first-hand experience with the Galaxy Ring, and reported that the ring had "several sensors and nodules on the black plastic inside to ensure good skin contact." While details are lacking in all the publications on the ring's design and the images of the ring were far too few on the internet besides the ones that were shared by Samsung, one can still make an impression on how the Galaxy Ring is planning on subverting the patents from Oura.

Oura's patents, as described in our earlier post, has a particular way of making their rings. This method, which uses a 'potting material' like epoxy, makes the ring have a clear plastic interior. While Ultrahuman seems to have fallen into this trap by allegedly copying the design by Oura, the Galaxy ring seems to be following a nuanced approach.

The images posted by Samsung show a seam between the plastic and the metal, indicating that they are 2 separate elements. Comments from Matt Evans, which term the plastic as 'black plastic inside' indicate that the material may not be epoxy. This bodes well for Samsung, as ōURA seems to be a litigious company, taking UltraHuman to court.

These details could be ascertained from first-hand reports and images, and the final verdict on the ring is yet to be gauged. However it would be commendable if Samsung is able to fully subvert Oura's patent, something a lot of other things seem prime to be accused of.

As a side-note, we at dhyana are proud to announce that we too have filed our patent in the US, (Application number 18/685,924), with a filing date of the 11th November 2022. (Note that the filing date is earlier than the patent filed by another ring company: Movano Health (US20240000387A1))

The oncoming healthcare revolution

Aforementioned, one of the key areas of digital health which is seeing a revolution is the one on preventive healthcare and the democratization of medicine. While one can understand these two terms as separate, they both lead to the same conclusion, that we need to be more aware of our bodies and minds.

This is where the role of smart rings plays a critical and vital step in ushering the world and the healthcare infrastructure at large to a new paradigm. Smart rings give an unparalleled use over smart watches, as they are more comfortable, more accurate and less obtrusive. These qualities make them infinitely more usable than watches, while at the same time rings can be designed to be jewelry in the future.

Long has the promise of wearable technology been to unlock digital healthcare description, however that goal post had moved in the many years to catering to one's physical fitness.

With companies like Samsung and dhyana making the smart rings more available and versatile, while focussing on innovation for uplifting one's holistic wellness, the goal post can readily be moved back. Preventive care isn't only about tracking one's steps, one's mindful minutes, one's time asleep or one's nutritional intake, but a combination of all the above.

With Samsung's unlock of connecting their smart fridges with their entire healthcare ecosystem would be a logical and necessary step, where one's meals and one's nutrition too are being taken care off by their own physical and mental goals. This is when democratization of medicine will truly come to its own, when we're fully aware and in control of our own health.

dhyana welcomes Samsung to the Ring of Rings. This lofty goal of making the world a more aware and healthier place needs you, and we're happy you're here.