This world-first smart ring claims to track your body fat and hydration, and it's on Kickstarter now
Small, yes – but is it effective?
The best fitness trackers come in all shapes and sizes, and now it’s smart rings that are making quite the impact on the world of fitness. Smart rings have reimagined the way you can track your health and they offer a lot of impressive features for their size, whether that’s monitoring movement, sleep, or helping you make payments more conveniently.
The official announcement of the Samsung Galaxy Ring has sparked the beginning of a trend in wearable tech and it’s rumored that giants like Apple will follow with its own smart ring. However, it’s not just big companies like Apple and Samsung getting involved – a Kickstarter project for a new smart ring called Ringo claims to track your hydration levels and body fat, which could be a first for smart wearables.
The two models, Ringo and Ringo Pro, aim to combine some elements of the best smart scales and condense them into one tiny ring. The Pro will also pack an ECG, just like the best smartwatches, along with the usual heart rate, SPO2 and sleep tracking metrics.
If Ringo’s ambitious prototype succeeds in its claims, it could become the first smart ring to achieve this milestone beating the likes of the Oura Ring and Samsung Galaxy Ring to the punch. No pressure.
One small step in size, one giant leap for smart tracking
Spotted on Gadgets and Wearables, both basic and pro models will have a range of different features that make up the foundations of most fitness trackers. In addition to tracking everyday exercises and activities, the two models will have the ability to monitor body temperature, heart rate, blood oxygen, sleep, and heart rate variability.
So far, its features seem to cover all the basics that come with any fitness tracker, but the Ringo Pro appears to have more advanced features. This includes an integrated Bioelectrical Impedance Analysis (BIA) sensor, which essentially sends a small electric current through your body using its speed levels to determine your levels of hydration, muscle, bone, and body fat.
According to the Kickstarter, the basic model of the Ringo smart ring will have a price tag of $169 and the Pro model could be set at $100 more.
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Now, it’s never certain that a Kickstarter project is set in stone for release, so the Ringo smart ring is still very much a hypothetical product. If it does come to fruition, Ringo will stand out from other smart rings as a first for the form factor, and it could become one to watch for other tech companies like Samsung, Oura, and Apple.
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Rowan is an Editorial Associate and Apprentice Writer for TechRadar. A recent addition to the news team, he is involved in generating stories for topics that spread across TechRadar's categories. His interests in audio tech and knowledge in entertainment culture help bring the latest updates in tech news to our readers.