Oura has built three sensors and a battery in its ring. This should enable the jewelry to analyze the health of the wearer. Testing shows that the ring shows its strength especially during sleep.
Fitness watches and bracelets often reveal what they are. It is their design that reveals the function of the tracker. Wearers of these devices show that they want to measure themselves and their athletic performance. It’s different with the Oura Ring. The ring looks like a ring. Not filigree, but like jewelry. They have a built in battery and three sensors. But that makes them invisible.
It is not so easy to find such a ring. First you have a test kit sent to you that consists of several plastic rings. You should choose the right size for your finger or thumb and wear the ring for 24 hours.
Because a finger swells a little overnight and during exercise. Once the size is found, genuine titanium rings can be ordered. Prince Harry has been seen with it, as has Twitter founder Jack Dorsey.
Testing shows that the Oura Ring isn’t a classic fitness tracker. The wirelessly charged battery lasts for five to six days. This is an astonishing feat for its size. Of course, this does not work if the pulse is measured continuously. And this is why Ring is not suitable for tracking sports activities.
The manufacturer claims that the ring automatically detects multiple activities and shows calories consumed accordingly. But it rarely works reliably. Calorie consumption is an estimate based on the type and duration of the user’s activity, weight and age. The sensor has no role in this.
An app providing information about daily form
Therefore it is also recommended to use smartphone-app To connect Google Fit or Apple Health applications to be able to automatically read in reliable values from other trackers from Oura.
The Aura Ring should be understood more as a health tracker. Apart from motion and temperature sensors, it also has a built-in PPG sensor. PPG stands for photoplethysmography. This sensor evaluates the reflections of the emitted infrared light rays and thus can record heart and respiratory rates.
In conjunction with the motion sensor, the ring analyzes the stages of sleep like this. True, Oura recommends wearing the ring round the clock. But it makes the most sense to use it at night. Ring automatically transmits its data via Bluetooth to a clear smartphone app, which provides all kinds of information about morning sleep, including the length of deep sleep stages and REM (rapid eye movement), Includes average heart rate and duration. of sleep
Although all of these values are shown individually, the Oura app uses them to calculate a number of points for sleep quality. The value goes up to 100, the higher it is, the better and more comfortable the sleep. along with app A value for a daily look from sleep and from the app’s activity data, among other things.
Here body temperature is also taken into account. However, the ring only measures the temperature at the surface of the skin, which does not correspond to normal body temperature. Therefore, the values can only be used if the ring has determined a normal skin temperature over two weeks, which may vary for each user.
it’s fun to see the values
Once this reference value is available, only the up and down deviations are measured. Here, however, diseases can declare themselves at an early stage, for example if the temperature rises significantly.
Conclusion: The Aura Ring builds on one thing above all: an understanding of sleep quality. After several weeks, we had the impression that the ring could be the hallmark of a good and restful sleep. In this case, it is not at all conclusive whether the duration of individual sleep phases is really reliable.
However, some phenomena can be found in the values of sleep. This applies to coffee consumption late during the day or alcohol consumption in the evening. Then, for example, the ability to sleep decreases, that is, the proportion of the time you actually sleep after going to bed.
The ring can indicate that sleep is less restful. The app also gives some tips for better behavior. But nothing surprising. The most important thing is to get enough sleep. However, this knowledge does not require the One Ring. Still, it’s fun to adhere to the values. Oura ring costs 314 euros.
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