Smartwatches have made health tracking mainstream, while smart rings have offered a more discreet way to monitor sleep, activity and recovery. The next step can be wearables that do away with both the watch face and the ring altogether. We have already talked about the Temple wearable, which can track blood flow and tell you about stress levels in different situations. But there can be more devices too.
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A newly granted patent from Oura hints at this possibility. The company seems to be working on a wearable patch that can monitor blood oxygen levels and sleeping position to watch out for different types of sleep apnoea. The concept is interesting and definitely different from the devices that we already know. Instead of trying to fit more sensors and health features into a device worn on the finger, Oura seems to be exploring a form factor designed around a more specific health-monitoring task.
Why Oura might be looking beyond smart rings
Wearables have traditionally competed on convenience. Smartwatches offer screens, notifications and health tracking, while smart rings appeal to people who want many of those measurements without wearing a watch throughout the day. Both form factors, however, have practical limitations when it comes to monitoring particular physiological signals.
A ring is well suited to collecting certain measurements from the finger, including changes in heart rate and blood oxygenation. But sleep-related breathing problems can involve several variables, and understanding them may require more than one sensor reading. Sleeping position, the frequency of oxygen drops and patterns across multiple nights can all provide useful context.
Oura’s proposed patch seems to be a different approach- combining these signals rather than relying on a single metric. The patent also suggests that the device can be placed at different locations on the body, possible positions around the forehead, neck, chest and behind the ear.
That flexibility can matter if the company eventually decides to develop specialised wearables for specific monitoring needs. Instead of asking one device to track everything, manufacturers can make smaller products around particular signals or use cases.
For now, that remains a possibility rather than a confirmed product strategy. Still, the patent raises an interesting question about whether the next phase of wearable technology will be defined by more capable smartwatches and rings, or by devices designed to monitor health in more targeted ways.
Oura’s patent focuses on identifying different types of sleep apnoea
The new patent is said to refine the concept by placing emphasis on differentiating the obstructive and central sleep apnoea. For the unversed, the OSA occurs when the upper airway becomes blocked or narrowed during sleep, interrupting normal breathing. For some people, these episodes become more frequent when sleeping on their backs. CSA is different. It occurs when the brain temporarily fails to send the signals required to control breathing, and its relationship with sleep position can differ from that of OSA.
According to the patent, the proposed system can use a person’s sleeping position alongside the amount and frequency of blood oxygen desaturation to estimate which type of apnoea may be involved.
In practice, this can mean identifying whether breathing disturbances and oxygen drops tend to coincide with a particular sleeping position, rather than simply flagging that something unusual happened during the night.
The system is also described as collecting information over several nights. This can help it establish a baseline for an individual’s typical oxygen levels and sleeping positions before identifying patterns that may warrant further investigation.
The patent additionally discusses monitoring changes during positive airway pressure (PAP) therapy, which is commonly used to treat obstructive sleep apnoea. Comparing oxygen levels and breathing-related events over time may potentially help assess whether these indicators change during treatment.
Ofcourse, these capabilities can make the proposed patch more specialised than a general wellness tracker. However, the patent alone does not establish how accurate the system will be or even if it can distinguish the two conditions reliably or whether it would receive regulatory clearance for medical use.
Can specialised wearables be the next step after rings?
The broader wearable market already shows that consumers are willing to look beyond the traditional smartwatch. Smart rings have gained attention by offering sleep and recovery tracking in a smaller form factor, while screenless bands have explored a different balance between comfort, battery life and health insights.
I think the patent hints that the wearable industry will definitely move further. Rather than being designed primarily for everyday interaction or broad fitness tracking, it can be built around a particular monitoring requirement. That opens up the possibility of wearables for sleep, stress or other physiological measurements that benefit from a different placement on the body.
However, the success will depend on whether such devices offer useful information without introducing too much friction. Another challenge can be the relevant data. More data does not necessarily mean better health insights. The value of a specialised wearable would depend on the reliability of its measurements, how clearly it explains its findings and whether those findings help users make informed decisions.
Ashish Singh is the Chief Copy Editor at Digit. He's been wrangling tech jargon since 2020 (Times Internet, Jagran English '22). When not policing commas, he's likely fueling his gadget habit with coffee, strategising his next virtual race, or plotting a road trip to test the latest in-car tech. He speaks fluent Geek. View Full Profile