Fitbit could be working on a new smart ring

Fitbit could be working on a new smart band

A new Fitbit patent shows how it could compete with the Oura band (above). (Prototype credit: Oura)

While the original Fitbit was designed to be clipped on to pants or running shorts, in contempo years the company has devoted its designs to smartwatches and some of the best fettle trackers effectually. But according to a recent patent, the company is now considering the possible applications of a smart band.

What's interesting near this is that the patent doesn't suggest that the ring would be to supplant its existing wearables, but to augment them by measuring blood oxygen saturation levels (SpO2) via built-in optical sensors.

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This could potentially offer far better accurateness than what'due south provided past wrist-based solutions similar Fitbit's current stable of fitness trackers. Indeed, a ring's form factor is a closer lucifer for pulse oximeters used in a clinical setting, which clip onto a finger and laissez passer light from one side to a photodetector on the other. Every bit oxygenated and deoxygenated blood absorb light differently, the measurement given can be used to reveal your SpO2 figure.

A diagram from the Fitbit ring patent — (Epitome credit: USPTO/Fitbit)

Wrist based wearables are different. Your wrist is obviously thicker than a finger, and the technology of wearables doesn't usually wrap all the way around. So SpO2 sensors on fitness trackers use reflected low-cal instead. It gives you lot an approximation, only accuracy certainly isn't as high as with a defended pulse oximeter.

According to the patent, the ring would pass the data it collects to your phone or Fitbit wearable via Bluetooth or NFC. Crucially, Fitbit mentions the ring could contain a motion tracker — non for counting steps, simply to ensure the wearer isn't moving effectually, which isn't smashing for accuracy. "The movement sensor can exist used to remove dissonance from the data acquired by motion," the patent reads, while adding that it can also include "power saving measures to extend the bombardment life".

Smart rings for health tracking aren't new. Oura also sits on the finger and measures sleep, steps, heart rate and body temperature divergence – and its health credentials were recently bolstered by the NBA buying ii,000 of them for its players and staff to keep track of metrics in the fight confronting Covid-xix.

But Oura is a $300 smart ring, and anything by Fitbit might accept to be considerably cheaper to exist appealing, especially when this patent suggests owners will as well need another wearable to go the full benefit.

And, of grade, there's another big supposition here: not everything companies patent are ever realized in a commercial production. Simply with Google the new owners of Fitbit, the visitor certainly has the upkeep to effort new things.

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Freelance contributor Alan has been writing most tech for over a decade, covering phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are plant all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, y'all'll probably find him tackling his e'er-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.