It is not unlikely that in the future, to track your health and fitness, instead of a watch or smart bracelet, buy one of the Fitbit rings. Fitbit recently filed a patent application on the website of the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), which shows that the company has the idea of making smart rings. The application was submitted to the USPTO in December 2020 and was released in early June 2021 as Fitbit. Given that Fitbit made its first smart app application request in 2019, it seems that Fitbit - which is now owned by Google - to produce the device is serious.

Fitbit patent application for this patent with such The title is registered: "A loop for optical measurement of biometric data". According to the petition, Phytobit apparently means "biometric data" rather than blood oxygen saturation, or SpO2. Here, of course, the measurement of SpO2 is done in a completely different way from smartwatches and will be more accurate on paper.

The mechanism of the intelligent ring described in this patent application is similar to the function of a pulse oximeter, which is abundant in medical centers. Is used. The device - which looks like a clip - is attached to a finger, toe or earlobe. Light is emitted from one side of the device, which passes through the skin and veins to a light sensor (photodetector) on the other side of the device. The main mechanism of the device is related to how light is absorbed by red blood cells; Because the absorption of light in oxygenated cells will be different from that in non-oxygenated cells. In this way, the light profile passing through the finger (or earlobe) shows how much oxygen is in the blood.

This type of mechanism is not possible in a device such as a watch or bracelet, and instead these devices must use reflected light. Blood that is full of oxygen reflects red light more than infrared, but blood that does not have enough oxygen reflects infrared more than red light. According to this request, monitoring blood oxygen in this method will be accompanied by noise, especially if the watch is not completely aligned with the skin of the user's hand.

The statements made by Fitbit in the patent application indicate that the company believes that the method used to monitor the light passing through the ring can be used for other purposes, such as taking blood pressure (without the need for a cuff). ) As well as measuring glucose levels and blood lipid concentrations. Finally, the data collected by the ring is sent to the Fitbit app on the Fitbit smartphone or smartwatch. According to Fitbit, this is done via Bluetooth or NFC.

It should be noted that the idea of Fitbit is not entirely new because the Finnish company Oura has recently implemented this idea by producing a smart ring called Oura Ring. Is. Launched in 2016, the Oura Ring can measure quantities such as heart rate, heart rate fluctuations, respiration rate and body temperature at night. But unlike the Oura Ring - which works mostly at night - the Fitbit smart ring (if manufactured) seems to be more suitable for use during the day, as the text of the request mentions a motion sensor that determines when to collect The data is appropriate (for example, when the user is inactive).

Staying still is very important, because movement causes dysfunction and reduces accuracy. That's why the Polar Verity Sense heart rate sensor - which rests on the arm and moves less than a smartwatch - is usually more accurate than a watch (although both use an optical heart rate sensor).

Many patents never come to fruition, so there is no guarantee that Fitbit will commercialize the smart ring idea, but a review of the company's approach shows that Fitbit has recently taken a serious approach to producing products focusing on the jewelry form factor. Has taken a step. For example, the Fitbit Luxe smart bracelet has recently been made available with a gold-colored stainless steel chain strap made by a jewelry designer named Gorjana.

With this in mind, it is unlikely that we will see mass production of the Fitbit smart ring in the future. It is interesting to know that in the text of the Fitbit patent application, various scenarios about the shape of this ring have been proposed, including a regular ring, a large ring on the thumb, and even a combination of several rings, each of which is designed for a different purpose. It should be noted, however, that a large smart ring certainly attracts more attention than a fitness bracelet, and therefore, according to some experts, many customers may not be interested in using such rings. Maybe that's why Amazon has stopped making the Echo Loop smart ring.