There has never been a better opportunity for wearable technology to flourish than right now. In the wake of the coronavirus outbreak, we’re all anxious about our health. In this context, wearable computers with small sensors that provide information about our health seem to be very valuable.
This includes the third-generation Oura Ring, which was launched last November and is one such device that sticks out as being very fascinating. A $300 health-monitoring gadget that is worn on a finger like a piece of jewellery, the device is small and discreet.
In spite of all of the anticipation, I’m sad to say that, after two weeks of wearing an Oura, it turned out to be a disappointment. The ring’s inability to effectively capture simple data such as my footsteps created concerns about the ring’s ability to appropriately assess my overall health data. (More on this in a moment.) And, although the graphs showing my heart rate and sleep patterns were interesting to look at, I didn’t feel any better informed about my general health as a result of them.
To get a second perspective, I went to Dr. Ethan Weiss, an interventional cardiologist at the University of California, San Francisco, who has an earlier version of the Oura Ring that he uses to measure sleep, body temperature, and physical activity (as well as other metrics). In response, Dr. Weiss said that he had ceased wearing it years before.
There are many steps involved in getting started with an Oura Ring. To begin, you must obtain a free size kit from the company’s website in order to have your finger measured. After that, you inform the firm of your height and weight. The ring is charged and synced with a smartphone app after it has been placed on a docking station when it is received. The software takes around two weeks to generate the baseline of your health data and to produce accurate estimations once the device has been used for a period of time.
After I got off the bus, I opened the Oura app on my phone. It indicated I had walked a total of 20 kilometres on the GPS. This was, without a doubt, incorrect. When I went for a walk with my dogs in the afternoon, I had only walked a mile on that particular day.
This did not turn out to be effective. My motions had been permanently logged as walking by the app, and the data could not be erased or deleted. Because I ride motorbikes on a daily basis, even for errands around town, this resulted in the loss of roughly a week’s worth of activity data. Manually editing my data would have destroyed the point of using an automated tracker, as would having to manually amend my data.
Some parts of the Oura are intriguing to consider. The battery life of the ring is around seven days, which is far greater than that of gadgets like as the Apple Watch, which must be recharged every other day. As a result of the extended charge, the ring may remain on your finger for a longer period of time, allowing it to gather more information about you over time, including specific information on your heart rate and sleep.
I particularly like the way the Oura app represented sleep data in a graphic manner. When I opened my eyes, there was a chart showing me at various stages of sleep as well as when I was awake. It also revealed that my heart rate was at its lowest when I was sleeping – a greater heart rate might be caused by stress or eating late in the day. Finally, the app provided advice: as bedtime neared, the programme advised against the intake of coffee and alcohol in order to obtain a better night’s sleep.
This indicated that Oura Health has made insufficient investments in customer service. This is something that I despise seeing. The way a business handles its customers is an important aspect of the product ownership experience, and I keep a brand’s service reputation in the back of my mind whenever I evaluate items.
In response to the unfavourable criticism, Mr. Becherer said that the firm has struggled to expand its customer service operations as the product expanded. He said that the firm was unprepared for the influx of consumer inquiries after the addition of a subscription plan, which requires clients to pay $6 a month for the app’s services after a six-month trial period. (Previously, the software’s functionality were available for no charge.)
The bottom line is that we should wait and see whether this product improves. For the time being, there is a less expensive method to determine whether or not you are ill with Covid-19: fast at-home test kits, which the United States government has begun to provide free of charge.
