We’re always proud when we get to talk about our hometown of San Diego. It’s a great city to live in, and we love being a U.S.-based company. Now engineers at UCSD have given us another reason to be proud of our town. Noninvasive blood sugar tracking is considered the “holy grail of health wearables,” and researchers at UCSD have made a ring that does just that.
The ring is currently a prototype and not for sale. It analyzes chemical biomarkers in sweat to continuously monitor up to four biochemical measurements at the same time. It can track blood sugar, ketones, vitamin C, uric acid, lactate and alcohol levels. Tests show that, for blood sugar, it’s as accurate as continuous glucose monitors and finger pricks.
“Commercial rings only provide biophysical information, but they lack molecular information about biochemical markers that offers deeper insights about an individual’s health status,” said study first author Tamoghna Saha.
The prototype is a bulky ring with a battery life of only 12 hours. It needs a more practical, everyday design and better battery life before it’s ready for market. The Oura Ring 5 has an eight-day battery life, and the Ultra Human Ring Pro has a 15-day battery life.
“A ring capturing dynamic molecular information in real time would be extremely useful for making informed decisions regarding health, diet and lifestyle,” said Prof. Joseph Wang, who led the research. “For example, the ring’s ability to track both glucose and ketone continuously and simultaneously would greatly benefit optimal insulin dosing for the management of [blood sugar concerns].”
The ring sends all its data to a smartphone app for users to look at. That’s the same as commercially available rings. But while the rings on the market look at things like a person’s pulse, oxygen levels, temperature and sleep patterns, this ring tracks a person’s chemical changes.
The ring doesn’t require people to actively sweat to get a reading. The ring contains an osmotic hydrogel that painlessly draws sweat from the skin.
