Throughout Samsung’s 2024 Unpacked occasion, the South Korean smartphone marker unveiled its new Galaxy S24 smartphones and in addition teased its entry into an solely partially-tapped market: good rings. Samsung’s Galaxy Ring may very well be launched as quickly as later this yr.
Sensible rings have been round for some time, with maybe the best-known ring being the Oura Ring. The Oura appears to be like like a pleasant piece of jewellery however the inside the ring is lined with sensors that work very like the sensors in Apple’s smartwatch, the Apple Watch, measuring coronary heart fee, motion, blood oxygen stage, and nightly physique temperature.
So, if Samsung is making the transfer into the good ring market, individuals will naturally look Apple’s manner, as a wise ring looks as if a logical development for a corporation that already makes the most well-liked smartwatch in the marketplace.
Nicely, as reported by AppleInsider, Apple may very well be contemplating making a wise ring.
Through the years, Apple has utilized for and obtained a number of patents for expertise that may very well be utilized in a wise ring.
Apple has been mulling over a wise ring for almost a decade, as an utility named “Gadgets and strategies for a hoop computing gadget” that describes a miniature Apple Watch-type finger-worn gadget was filed in 2015. The gadget additionally sported a miniature contact show. Apple made a continuation submitting that was granted in 2019 on the identical concept.
The 2015 submitting contains mentions of capabilities like inductive charging, a coronary heart fee monitor, an accelerometer, and a gyroscope that might permit gesture enter, Pressure Contact, and different options.
The patent submitting additionally mentions voice management. communications over Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, and NFC. Additionally talked about is the flexibility to make use of the ring to regulate different {hardware}.
Apple has explored methods to work together with the ring with out touching it. A patent entitled “Pores and skin-to-Pores and skin Contact Detection,” granted in April 2023, covers a number of methods to detect contact or gestures between two physique elements, ala Double Faucet on the Apple Watch Sequence 9. When a gesture is carried out, the the ring senses movement or an motion, performing the designated motion.
In the meantime, a 2020 Apple patent utility describes utilizing ultra-wideband to detect a tool that the person desires to work together with. Gestures may then be used to work together with a delegated gadget.
Extra just lately, a patent granted in August 2020, entitled “Ring enter gadget with pressure-sensitive enter,” describes a tool that would additionally notify customers of occasions.
The ring would obtain wi-fi enter from a companion gadget after which alert the wearer that there’s something they might need to try. So, an iPhone notification may trigger the ring to offer a haptic buzz on the wearer’s finger.
The patent additionally mentions utilizing a rotating outer band that surrounds a stationary inside band that is still in touch with the person’s digit. The exterior ring may very well be rolled round to modify between choices or present granular changes, like quantity management.
Apple has additionally thought-about controlling a Imaginative and prescient Professional-like gadget with a wise ring. The ring would come with a sensor and a visible marker, which may present a way of gesture enter.
It’s doable that any ring gadgets Apple launched might not be worn on a person’s single finger. Customers may very well be sporting the ring throughout two adjoining fingers. Additionally doable is a tool that may very well be worn “as a part of a necklace, hoop earrings, digital bracelet bands which are worn across the wrist, digital toe rings, and the like.”
A November 2023 patent mentions sporting a ring-shaped gadget “round a person’s wrist, arm, leg, ankle, neck, head, and/or different physique half.”
Apple applies for and receives patents usually. Regardless that Apple might have patents for the parts that may very well be utilized in a wise ring, the patents may be utilized in different merchandise. An Apple good ring might by no means see the sunshine of day.