What you need to know
- Samsung has filed a new patent that shows the Ring-like device to be taking temperatures of objects and people.
- It could come with visual, auditory, or tactile alerts that show up on the ring.
- The new ring may also sport new motion sensors that go with these temperature sensors.
The Galaxy Ring launched in July last year after which, the company rolled out new sizes for the wearable ahead of its recent Unpacked event. And now, it looks like they’re working on the next Gen of the wearable.
We’ve heard little to nothing of the Galaxy Ring 2, luckily a new patent filed by the company hints at an interesting feature it could bring. The upcoming Ring could come with new sensors, that measure not just the surface but also the body temperatures of the user as well as others (via 91Mobiles). These sensors are said to be placed on the side that comes in contact with the user’s skin, just like the ones on the first Galaxy Ring.
The publication further adds that the new ring will also sport motion sensors such as an accelerometer and gyroscope. This will gauge the user’s finger and hand moments that will determine “where it is as well as how it’s being used.” The wearable will allegedly come built-in with the tech that will recognize the movement patterns of the user, which will trigger the temperature sensor to be activated.
For instance, if your hand moves a certain way to check the temperature of a drink, versus a person’s body temperature— it can differentiate between the two. According to the patent, this could be possible if the ring had one non-contact temperature sensor and one contact temperature sensor. As shown in the sketches below.
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Additionally, the patent adds that the final temperature readings may show up on the Ring, in the form of visual, auditory, or tactile alerts. The same goes for any other notifications the ring needs to send out to the user. This means that the surface of the upcoming Galaxy Ring could have a display, speaker, and haptic motor— a first for a wearable of this size.
In a separate patent filed in February, the new ring is shown to control other devices, working as a cursor, moving things around on what looks like a laptop or a tablet’s screen. Just like the WowMouse app that turns your WearOs smartwatch into a mouse, with air gestures, that was spotted at CES 2024.
It is important to note that not all patent requests make it to the final device. While it would be nice to see this show up on the Galaxy Ring 2, here is what we expect to see on the next-gen ring.