The Samsung Galaxy Ring has various sensors to trace things like heart rate.
Samsung
BARCELONA — Samsung’s Galaxy Ring, its latest wearable, is launching with health-tracking features including heart rate and sleep monitoring while also giving users a rating of their readiness for the day, a top executive told CNBC.
In a wide-ranging interview, Hon Pak, the top of the digital health team at Samsung Electronics, discussed the corporate’s first foray into the product category of rings, considerations for a subscription model for the Samsung Health app, and his vision for a man-made intelligence “coach.”
Samsung teased the Galaxy Ring in January in the course of the press conference when it launched the S24 smartphone. The South Korean tech giant is putting it on display for the primary time at Mobile World Congress in Barcelona, which kicks off on Monday.
Samsung Galaxy Ring features
Pak said the ring, which is fitted with sensors, will find a way to offer readings on heart rate, respiratory rate, the quantity of movement made during sleep, and the time it takes an individual to go to sleep once in bed.
He also said the ring will find a way to offer a user a “vitality rating” which “collects data about physical and mental readiness to see how productive you’ll be able to be.”
All of that will likely be accessible through the Samsung Health app.
The ring is about to go on sale this yr, but Pak didn’t give a timeline or the pricing.
Pak also said the corporate is considering adding a feature that might allow the Galaxy Ring to do contactless payments, as with smartphones.
“We’ve an entire … team that’s that. But I feel clearly multiple different use cases for the Ring beyond just health, needless to say,” Pak said.
The Samsung executive also said the corporate is working on non-invasive glucose monitoring in addition to a blood pressure sensing through its wearable devices.
“I feel we have now some ways to go,” Pak said of non-invasive glucose monitoring. Currently, people use devices that pierce the skin to envision glucose levels. A non-invasive technique to do that might be an enormous step.
Samsung ecosystem play
Samsung is hoping that various devices will boost its positioning in health, an area it has been working on for several years.
Samsung has its smartphones and smartwatches. The Galaxy Ring is the latest product category in health. Samsung said the choice to launch a “smart ring” was driven by its customers.
“Our own customers told us, I need selection. I need the flexibility to produce other types of wearables to measure health,” Pak said. “And a few need to wear the watch, some need to wear the watch and the ring and get profit from each. Some just want more simplicity.”
The Samsung Galaxy Ring will work at the side of Samsung’s smartwatches.
Samsung
Pak confirmed that when the smartwatch and Ring are worn together, users will find a way to get different health insights.
Samsung shouldn’t be the primary company to launch smart rings. There are a handful of other players corresponding to Oura.
Previous generations of Samsung’s flagship smartphone, corresponding to the S7, have sensors that track things like heart rate. Users could put their finger on the sensor and it could give a reading. Samsung has done away with those sensors on its phones, especially because it has smartwatches that provide these features.
Nevertheless, Pak didn’t rule out the chance that future smartphones would have health sensors on them.
“Mobile remains to be very pervasive and so I feel there are explanation why we should want to put a sensor on a mobile versus having it on a wearable,” Pak said.
AI ‘coach’
Pak discussed how artificial intelligence will play a task in Samsung’s health services. AI may also help make sense of all of the information these devices are collecting. And ultimately, Pak’s goal is to get the AI to offer deeper insights into an individual’s health.
He said large language models, that are AI models trained on huge amounts of knowledge and that underpin applications like chatbots, may also help to offer greater insights.
“Imagine that enormous language model, acting as my digital assistant, while the context of my medical records, my physiological data, my engagement with a mobile device, the wearables during all of that … begins to bring greater insights and personalization opportunities,” Pak said.
“There is a digital assistant coach in the longer term, because we predict that is absolutely needed,” the Samsung executive said.
Pak described a scenario during which a digital assistant offers health advice in the correct tone and context, saying “our ability to vary our behavior becomes much greater.”
Bixby, Samsung’s digital assistant, could have an element to play, Pak said.
“So we’re exploring various alternative ways during which the human computer interface will change over time … And so we predict Bixby with speech represents a big a part of that option. But we do not think it is the only option. But Bixby potentially combined with large language models could be a phenomenal game changer. And we’re obviously having that conversation,” Pak said.
The chief also said the corporate is “considering” a subscription service for its Samsung Health app, but that the capabilities and insights it offers must be improved before that may occur. AI assistants may also help.
“In the event you’re gonna really make me pay for something, you higher give me something that is more end to finish that is more comprehensive” when it comes to health insights, Pak said.
