Discover more from PULSE by Wareable
Oura's Head of Science talks experimental features and the future of health sensors
Plus, all the key wearable tech developments from this week
Welcome to the PULSE by Wareable newsletter. Earlier this week, paid subscribers got to enjoy our fascinating podcast with Whoop SVP of Data & Science, Emily Capodilupo.
Here, we’ll be rounding things off with Shyamal Patel, Head of Science at Oura, who gives us the inside track on the all-new experimental Symptom Radar feature and provides insight into the company’s approach to future health sensors.
There have also been plenty of eye-catching health developments and studies popping up on our feed this week - as well as some notable launches. Read on to the end to find out all about them.
As ever, we’d also like to welcome our new subscribers - we’re continuing to see great support and feedback since we launched PULSE at the start of the year, and your support and enthusiasm are much appreciated.
Take the PULSE survey
We’re still looking to learn from you, our readers. There’s a link below - your feedback can help us make PULSE even better.
A new Oura hub for experimental features
This week, Oura began rolling out a new section to all its subscribers - Oura Labs.
Essentially, this is an opt-in hub for experimental features that may (or may not) appear as a wider part of the tracking experience further down the line.
The first that users can begin playing with is Symptom Radar, a feature designed to detect physiological changes and provide insight into the risk of illness.
We caught up with the company’s Head of Science, Shyamal Patel, to get a full breakdown of Symptom Radar, the challenges of finding direct connections between biomarkers and illness, and what future sensors might unlock.
The basics behind Symptom Radar
By monitoring the likes of temperature, respiratory rate, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability, Oura hopes that Symptom Radar can alert users to what these changes might indicate.
Patel tells us this isn't designed to be a medical feature - which is to be expected, given it would otherwise need regulatory approval. However, it is supposed to advance upon the company's existing Rest Mode, a feature that allows users to park elements like Activity Score and instead focus on recovery.
"With Symptom Radar, you'll get qualitative insights. It's a weather forecast type of feature - this is not something where we can diagnose you or predict an illness. It’s not a medical feature.
"We obviously want to make sure we’re not crossing that line, but it's going to give you a much more explicit insight into whether you might be at risk of an illness than Rest Mode, where the idea is to look at your readiness and recognize when your body might need a break.
"[A prompt to turn on Rest Mode] could be because of illness, but it could also be because of extreme power training. Symptom Radar is a way to zoom in on the likely cause of illness - and not spot something like overtraining," he says.
The challenges of detecting illness
Patel also hints that Oura is treading a lighter path with Symptom Radar because of the difficulties that exist in establishing direct correlations between biomarkers and illness.
“An example of a direct correlation is in something like menstrual cycles - like predicting your fertile window. There's a clear connection between those temperature variations that happen at a certain time scale.
“That's a much more direct connection when you have something like illness. The ability to infer that is very difficult just from seeing certain physiological changes. Are they associated with illness, or are they actually because of a behavior like drinking a couple of glasses of wine?” he says.
Tagging events - like drinking alcohol the night before - is one solution to help assist wearables to decipher some of the contexts behind physiological changes, Patel says, but also warns that conveying a feature to users accurately is paramount.
“I think, broadly speaking, the wearables industry needs to be careful about not getting into becoming very specific unless you have the ability to make a direct connection.
“There will be a spectrum of things where you can make a direct connection between what you're measuring and the phenomena that you are observing or interpreting.
“And then there will be the aspects where you need a lot of context to really make that accurate assessment, but you can provide a directional sort of indicator, which is why we’re calling it Symptom Radar,” he says.
Progressing from PPG to future sensors
While Oura’s current hardware relies on much of the same PPG principles that have existed for decades, Patel suggests that the company is always thinking ahead to the next generation of sensors.
One such project we covered in last week’s newsletter. Oura is part of a consortium exploring photonic sensors for wearable devices in Finland, with Patel indicating that the mission is to explore what the future of health sensing may look like.
“We are looking at a longer-term horizon - 3 to 5 years out - where we are looking at how we can push sensing technology forward to provide deeper insights from the hardware perspective - or from an algorithm perspective.
“Whether it's measuring things like blood pressure, blood glucose - there are a lot of really powerful biomarkers that we don't have access to yet. And if we could enable access to those non-invasively, that would be remarkable.
While Patel is clear that many burgeoning sensor technologies are still yet to prove how effectively they can work in wearables, he also suggests that it’s likely we eventually see a multimodal sensor array that still includes current optical sensing techniques.
“I think optical sensing is going to continue to be a part of the solution space, but I also think it will be augmented with other types of sensors, whether it's RF sensors, or sweat, or even bioimpedance electrodes.
“When you get a multimodal view into your health, the resolution, the types of things you can measure and interpret just increases,” he said.
The rest of the news from this week
Apple Watch and AI combine in Stanford study
A new Stanford study will use the Apple Watch to pinpoint the triggers of severe pain episodes in children afflicted with CRPS (Complex Regional Pain Syndrome).
The study will use data tracked on the Apple Watch Series 8 smartwatches for six months alongside Medeloop, a specialized AI platform tailored for early-stage clinical research.
The study seeks to gain deeper insights into managing and understanding the debilitating condition.
NHS rolls out ‘artificial pancreas’ to diabetics
NHS England announced earlier this week that “tens of thousands of children and adults” with type 1 diabetes will soon be able to manage their insulin levels with a hybrid closed-loop system.
The so-called ‘artificial pancreas’ uses a sensor under the skin to send wireless readings to an external pump, and delivers insulin as and when required.
Users do have to input some information - hence the ‘hybrid’ part of the name - though this is otherwise an automated system that does away with the need for finger pricking.
FORM debuts second-gen AR swim goggles
Smart swimming goggles pioneer Form unveiled its long-awaited second-gen model earlier this week, with the Smart Swim 2 featuring heart rate monitoring, AR compass projections, and an improved fit.
It's been five years since the Vancouver startup released the Form Smart Swim 1 - still one of our favorite wearables for the pool - and this follow-up adds many features from our wish list.
Look for our extensive review on Wareable over the coming week.
Whoop launches Lounge Apparel collection
It’s been a few years since Whoop Body launched alongside the company’s 4.0 tracker - and, as announced by founder & CEO Will Ahmed, a new collection is now being added.
According to Ahmed, the ‘Lounge Apparel’ garms comprises “boxers, bralettes, and shorties”, adding to a Whoop Body wardrobe that already includes everything from compression tops and swim shorts to thongs and leggings.
Whichever takes your fancy, it’s refreshing to see at least one company still flying the flag for smart(ish) garments in 2024.
Subscribe to PULSE by Wareable
PULSE is the new subscription version of Wareable – the largest website dedicated to wearable tech. It focuses on health and wellness wearables, AI & new form factors. Subscribe for a free 2024 trends report