Could This Self-Quantifying Ring Help You Become SuperHuman?
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Our guest today is technology pioneer, Petteri Lahtela. He is also the CEO and founder of Oura with more than 20 years experience in creating high-tech products and building international businesses. He has wide expertise in the context of healthcare systems, technology & various technology businesses.
Petteri Lahtela will be educating us on his brand (Oura rings), how he came about the name, why the finger is chosen as the spot for measurement, what the ring measures, how it works and a whole lot of informative and health assurances the ring provides.
Benefits of Ōura
Why was the finger chosen for the ring?
The finger was chosen because it provides the accurate access to the arteries directly. The ring is the most comfortable form factor to most accurately measure body signals day and night. The infrared LEDs of the ŌURA ring access the Blood Volume Pulse directly from the Proper Palmar Digital Arteries of any finger. The ring detects the pulse waveform and amplitude variation, exact time between the heartbeats i.e. Interbeat Interval (IBI). From those it derives among others the heart rate, respiration rate as well as Heart Rate Variability (HRV), autonomic nervous system reactions and sleep staging related parameters. In addition to heart rate dynamics, the ŌURA ring measures even the slightest movements and the changes in body temperature.
How does it work and is the data collected by the ring is sent to an app on your phone?
How does it work and is the data collected by the ring is sent to an app on your phone?
ŌURA has developed software algorithms and architecture that allows the ring to operate fully stand-alone and perform uniquely well in detecting heart rate dynamics, movement, body temperature changes and other parameters for highly accurate assessment of physiological reactions of the body. The ring is a full featured computer itself and has a 32 bit ARM-processor inside. All the programs and algorithms are run in the ring and there is enough memory to store the data for several weeks.
What is Readiness score?
The Readiness Score is affected by Readiness contributors, which are displayed as horizontal bars in the Readiness view. These parameters help you to evaluate how well your recent and cumulative sleep, activity and recovery are in balance. Ranging from 0-100%, the Readiness Score helps you identify the days that are ideal for challenging yourself, and those that are better for taking it easy. Pushing yourself on days when your readiness is low can erode your health and capacity for future performance rather than building it up. Therefore ŌURA gives you a daily activity target based on how well you’ve recovered through the night.
Are the variables random and are parameters used to determine the score?
The idea of the Readiness score is to give holistic picture of how balanced you are with sleep, recovery and activities i.e. load and rest. A Readiness Score above 85% indicates that you’re well recovered. A score below 70% usually means that an essential readiness contributor, such as your body temperature or previous night’s sleep, falls outside your normal range, or clearly differs from recommended, science-based values. All seven contributors provide some meaningful indication about short or long term body responses, recovery levels and overall balance between load and rest. For example, recovery index is one of them, and it indicates how restorative sleep you got last night i.e. how well you have recovered from the load.
How does the ring measures the recovery?
The restoration rate can be derived from several ways; the pulse waveform, pulse amplitude variation and the inter-beat interval data, among others. Sleep quality and body reactions during the night indicated by heart rate dynamics, respiration rate, temperature variation, amount of movements as well as amount and timing of different sleep stages compared to your norm.
How does the ring measure temperature and why is it important?
ŌURA tracks the variations of your body temperature by measuring your skin temperature each night. Body temperature is a well regulated vital parameter. When you sleep, ŌURA compares your skin temperature to similar measures from your earlier nights to estimate your normal range. A full contributor bar indicates that your Body Temperature is within normal variation. You’ll see a lowered Readiness Score when your Body Temperature is outside your normal range.
Is the ring waterproof and does it monitor heart rate, restoration, etc. in extreme temperatures?
The ring is 50 meters or 160 feet or more waterproof so you can go diving with it. The ring monitors movements and activity during the day as well as heart rate dynamics when you are relaxed, taking a nap or meditating.
How do you get someone’s size?
We send a packet of sizing rings, and there are 8 different sizes from US6-US13. These are plastic rings the same size as the actual ring so people wear and determine their sizes before they are supplied with the actual rings. The oura app and is available for iPhones and Androids.
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