According to the latest news, Oura’s Generation 3 smart ring will have a couple of new features, including period prediction, blood oxygen monitoring, and real-time heart rate tracking. There will be as many as seven temperature sensors and add a pulse oxygen sensor.
Heart rate will be monitored by a new, green LED light throughout the day. From the end of this year, users will also be able to record their heart rate during exercise and see heart rate recovery relate information after completing a workout. From these updates, it is clear that the company is focusing on health. The new ring will use shifts in temperature and user feedback to predict when a user might get their period up to 30 days in advance. Just before ovulation, body temperature rises through the menstrual cycle and falls when the cycle begins.
Oura CEO Harpreet Rai said period prediction is only the beginning of the company’s interest in menstruation and fertility. He said, “It’s an underinvested area in wearables.” A study conducted in partnership with researchers at the University of California San Diego showed Oura ring can use temperature changes to identify pregnancy nine days before an at-home pregnancy test. Rai said as of now, the company’s goal is not into pregnancy prediction, it was just a part of future research.
As of now, there is already some precedent for the ring to be used in predicting periods. Recently, FDA had already given the digital birth control company Natural Cycles clearance to use the Oura Ring to collect temperature data. Natural Cycles has an algorithm that integrates daily temperature readings and cycles tracking to notify users about the most probabilistic day to get pregnant.
Initially, users took their temperature through a thermometer but the FDA allowed the app’s integration with the Oura ring from July. Rai clarified that Oura does not have an active partnership with Natural Cycles.
