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 pinnacle 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 synthetic intelligence “coach.”
Samsung teased the Galaxy Ring in January through 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 have the opportunity 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 have the opportunity to offer a user a “vitality rating” which “collects data about physical and mental readiness to see how productive you possibly can be.”
All of that shall be accessible through the Samsung Health app.
The ring is ready 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.
“Now we have an entire … team that’s taking a look at that. But I feel clearly taking a look at multiple different use cases for the Ring beyond just health, of course,” 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 now we have some ways to go,” Pak said of non-invasive glucose monitoring. Currently, people use devices that pierce the skin to examine glucose levels. A non-invasive strategy 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 most recent product category in health. Samsung said the choice to launch a “smart ring” was driven by its customers.
“Our own customers told us, I would like alternative. I would like the power to produce other types of wearables to measure health,” Pak said. “And a few wish to wear the watch, some wish to wear the watch and the ring and get profit from each. Some just want more simplicity.”
The Samsung Galaxy Ring will work along side Samsung’s smartwatches.
Samsung
Pak confirmed that when the smartwatch and Ring are worn together, users will have the opportunity to get different health insights.
Samsung is just not the primary company to launch smart rings. There are a handful of other players akin to Oura.
Previous generations of Samsung’s flagship smartphone, akin 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.
Nonetheless, Pak didn’t rule out the likelihood that future smartphones would have health sensors on them.
“Mobile remains to be very pervasive and so I feel there are the 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 job in Samsung’s health services. AI may 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 help to offer greater insights.
“Imagine that giant language model, acting as my digital assistant, while taking a look at 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 long run, because we expect that is absolutely needed,” the Samsung executive said.
Pak described a scenario during which a digital assistant offers health advice in the fitting 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 expect Bixby with speech represents a major a part of that option. But we do not think it is the only option. But Bixby potentially combined with large language models generally is 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 should be improved before that may occur. AI assistants may help.
“In case you’re gonna really make me pay for something, you higher give me something that is more end to finish that is more comprehensive” by way of health insights, Pak said.