Indian fitness platform Ultrahuman is expanding its wearable portfolio by launching a smart ring to bolster its ability to provide technology-loving “biohackers” – and, hopefully, health-conscious Boomers – with more insightful metabolic insights.
The sensors integrated in the upcoming Ring Ultrahuman include monitors for temperature, heart rate and movement, which allow the device to track the quality of sleep used, stress levels and activity density, by CEO and co-founder, Mohit Kumar.
The device is designed to work in conjunction with the startup’s existing wearable, a service based on continuous glucose monitoring (CGM) sensors branded “Cyborg,” to deepen the quality of information for users – such as and identifying when a poor glucose response might occur. be linked to a bad night’s sleep, say, or high levels of stress, rather than putting all the focus on what the user was eating just before their blood sugar.
The Ultrahuman Ring isn’t a CGM itself, but it can function as a standalone health tracker, according to Kumar – giving fitness beginners an attempt to extend the appeal of their metabolic tracking service since the smart ring slides only on the finger instead of, as is the case with the CGM, which requires a spring filament to be fired into the user’s upper arm (and left in place, “used” underneath skin).
The clean, chunky look of the ring band (which comes in a shiny metallic titanium or a black finish) is even more likely to suit fashion-conscious consumers than whipping up an arm patch. ” Cyborg “.
The Ultrahuman Ring is in pre-order today, with shipping scheduled to begin in August.
At the time of writing the price has not been confirmed, but the startup told us that there will be two options: A (premium) price that covers the use of life; and another (monthly) subscription option with a relatively short lock-in period, after which the user will be free to leave on request.
One ring to end the guesswork?
“The idea is to help you understand more about what the extra factors are in your metabolism,” says Kumar, discussing the smart ring coming into a Zoom call with TechCrunch. “Today with glucose monitor we really understand the result of the functioning of glucose metabolism, but there are many other factors that affect glucose levels – factors such as stress, sleep, activity. This may interest you : Maine Community Science Initiative continues to grow — and save amphibians. These are the main ones “.
“Today, a lot of this is actually hypothesis,” he continues. “But with our own wearable – and with access to raw wearable data – we actually have the ability now to understand what was the main factor that led to a poorer glucose response. For example, if we don’t you are not recovering because of, say, lack of sleep and high glucose levels, the platform can now clearly understand what is the contributing factor. And the same for lack of activity. “
Many factors can influence how the body metabolizes glucose, while large changes in blood sugar can be associated with health problems such as diabetes and heart disease – which create an impetus for consumers to make changes. in the lifestyle aimed at stabilizing their glucose response, as well as increasing their activity level. , choosing a healthier diet and getting enough sleep.
Ultrahuman’s metabolic fitness tracking service essentially sells real-time feedback to help individuals understand what’s going on with their biology. But when we tested its beta product on the road last year, we highlighted the relative challenge for average users to intelligently interpret their glucose variability data – and link it to specific lifestyle factors – versus taking an overly simplistic reading of the data.
The smart ring seems destined to reduce this gap in interpretation, allowing the Ultrahuman platform to track and triangulate a variety of biomarkers to provide users with a stronger reading of what’s behind their peaks and lows. of glucose. (Or: “If the lack of activity leads to high glucose base levels, the platform will be able to decode it in a much more efficient way,” as Kumar says.)
Ultrahuman will go against a number of more established players in the smart ring space – typically even with a strong focus on health / fitness tracking. However, he argues that his differentiating twist here is that he’s “optimizing for metabolism” – and, well, he has glucose tracking data to back that up (thanks to early adopters of his CGM-based wearable ‘Cyborg’). .
“Different platforms optimize for different things. Now, for example, optimize for sleep. Whoop provides recovery. And that’s optimistic for metabolism,” says Kumar, adding that how Ultrahuman captures data (with “more real-time” sensors) it is a distinctive technical element of their differentiation versus rival smart ring manufacturers.
“The way we construct data pointers, the frequency of data pointers, the type of metrics, real-time temperature, etc., is more optimized toward metabolism than other wearables,” he also suggests.
“For us temperature is a much more important biomarker since we look at the metabolic rate and glucose metabolism. So it was one of the reasons why we decided to build our own wearable – so that we have control of the accuracy of intuition as well as the ability to derive some of these insights that was not possible with the existing class of wearables ”.
According to Kumar, the Ultrahuman Ring measures stress by looking at factors such as heart rate, HRV (heart rate variability) and temperature – performing its own algorithmic analysis of the data to identify a stress response for the user. .
For activity, he says he aims to identify the “activity density” – by looking at the input from the accelerometers, and the temperature and heart rate – to try to understand “in which area of activity you were “.
The sleep monitoring component also pulls data from sensors of activity, temperature and heart rate – to identify different phases of sleep (REM, deep sleep, etc.).
While it’s loaded with sensors, the Ultrahuman Ring isn’t currently configured to provide direct feedback at the hardware level (as for vibration) – but Kumar suggests that tactile nudges and / or smart alarms are something he wants to add. in the future.
Two wearables for gut insights
Ultrahuman has settled on a smart ring as its choice of form factor for this second wearable, rather than – say – a smart band, for a few reasons. First, it avoids the risk of having to compete with existing wrist-mounted wearables (like the Apple Watch) for space on the user’s person. To see also : Larry Ellison’s latest ambition: to create a national health database. But Kumar also says that his test showed that a ring shape factor gave the lowest data variability of all the shapes he tested for metrics such as temperature, an important consideration for accuracy.
The team also judged that a ring is more likely to be worn more consistently and continuously than other types of wearables. (Ultrahuman’s Ring can survive bathing in the shower or pool, he confirms, with up to five days of battery life before it needs to be charged.) “More data the user has on himself , more powerful are insights. will be, ”he adds.
If the ring user also carries the Ultrahuman CGM simultaneously, the intuitions taken by the ring sensors will be directly linked to their real-time glucose levels (which the Cyborg sensor measures via changes in the interstitial fluid under the skin of his arm) – which allows actionable connections to be made between glucose variability and lifestyle events that may be activators (high stress, poor sleep, low activity levels, etc.). ).
“Where our strength will be is in terms of marriage things like glucose variability and the impact on your sleep,” he predicts. “Or, for example, if you have a late meal and a late peak glucose – what impact did it have on your sleep?
“For some people this is perfectly fine – they may have a late peak of glucose and will actually be almost in the [target’s sleep] area. But for a lot of people it actually affects their REM sleep quite [badly]. And in some cases it even affects their deep sleep. ”
The Ultrahuman smart ring plus Cyborg CGM combo could therefore feed dietary interventions for users who cannot avoid eating late, but for whom their metabolic monitoring has involved glucose spikes that negatively affect their quality of life. sleep – suggesting, for example, opting for certain foods that are linked to improved sleep (such as tryptophan-rich foods) when eating late.
“These are the intuitions where we will be truly unique,” he suggests.
The product also approaches movement and activity tips in a way different from rival products, according to Kumar.
“Movement is not just about burning more calories – it’s also about developing the frontal lobe, it’s also about longevity. And movement is an activity that helps people reduce cortisol levels and at the same time increase it.” its costing [high calories] .So much of our focus will be around movement – if you look at it from a activity tracking perspective. ”
An Ultrahuman smart ring user who hasn’t tapped his CGM sensor mounted on the upper arm may also get some overall benefits, according to Kumar. But he emphasizes that the greatest utility comes from the combination of the two wearables. “People will have to be able to understand their sleep quality, people will have to be able to understand their recovery levels from stress, movement, etc. But if they want to understand the effect on their glucose metabolism of all these factors have to be unlocked by a CGM … So it works in both ways, ”he says.
The ring can also work to fill service gaps that inevitably affect the Cyborg sensor – and thus expand the usefulness of its CGM tracking service – by continuing to provide a previous Cyborg sensor user with personalized feedback after their sensor. it has expired. (Arm-mounted CGMs typically last two weeks before being replaced – meaning the Cyborg service is interrupted unless a fresh sensor is applied – while the Ultrahuman Ring is thought to last longer and not “expire” automatically in the same way.)
“[If you only have the ring], the platform will understand, based on what kind of metabolic rate, your carbohydrate processing abilities, how long you have to walk, for example, after eating,” Kumar explains. “And this is possible because we now understand what kind of activity levels have led to decreased throughputs. So that’s how – over time – we don’t really need your CGM data yet, in many scenarios, to derive this output. “.
Bringing biohacking to Boomers?
Since the shape factor of the ring is obviously more accessible versus the CGM (semi-invasive) mounted on the arm, Ultrahuman expects a greater adoption of the smart ring than for the Cyborg tracker. On the same subject : How public web data helps small business SEO strategies.
He says he currently has 125,000 people in India on the waiting list for the Cyborg service – which remains in a managed beta – but expects at least 100,000 people to buy into the smart ring over the next year.
Ultrahuman will sell the smart ring worldwide – while the availability of the Cyborg sensor remains limited to India and the United Arab Emirates, due to regulatory considerations as well as its decision to focus on markets with high rates of metabolic disorders for the target product – thus the pool. of potential buyers is larger.
At the same time, Kumar says the team hopes the smart ring will be able to act as a broader marketing tool to cross-sell CGM-powered service.
The typical profile of existing Cyborg users is an individual between 30-40 years of age with a passion for fitness (and / or data analysis), and an interest in preventive health. But with the smart ring expected to have a wider appeal, Ultrahuman now has the eye to convince older consumers, of the Baby Boomer generation to take a stand on their metabolic health service – a larger population wide (about 25M-30M in the world) which Kumar suggests hasn’t adopted a wearable health yet. But maybe a little bright “or” bling could be just the nudge they need …
“Maybe they’ve adopted a wearable like the Apple Watch because it’s not just a wearable for health – it also does a lot of things – but they haven’t even turned it into a deep health or biohacking wearable. So that’s what ours is. target audience in the future would be serious – but the first audience will be biohackers, people who love data about their health, ”he adds.
This report has been updated with a correction to the number of people on the waiting list for Cyborg; it’s 125,000, not 25,000 as we originally reported
