While Samsung is preparing to launch their first smart ring in August related to Health Services, Apple has been granted their second patent relating to their possible ring related to health. More specifically, the ring is designed to sense a user's health conditions, such as heart rate, blood oxygen, blood pressure & more. It's also advantageous to wear while sleeping than an Apple Watch.

Apple describes the ring as possibly providing input structures such as switches, buttons, touch screen inputs, voice inputs, and so on. For example, the wearable device (ring #102) including touch sensors and/or force sensors (e.g., integrated into one or more displays of these devices).

Further, the input structures of ring may detect force and/or touch inputs, whether static or motions, speed, direction, force, displacement, or other parameters of gestures applied to the input regions, including taps, swipes, multi-finger inputs, single- or multi-finger touch gestures, presses, and the like. Such user inputs may be used to control or modify the operation of the ring.

The core of the patent covers the self-mixing interferometry sensor(s) (SMI). The sensor may include an emitter positioned within the housing and configured to output coherent light toward a skin of the user when the housing is worn by the user. The sensor may also include a detector configured to detect a portion of coherent light reflected towards the sensor and generate electrical signals that indicate displacements of the skin based on the portion of coherent light. The electronic device may further include a transmitter operatively coupled with the sensor and configured to transmit physiological data based on the electrical signals.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below shows an example of a physiological monitoring system that includes a wearable device in the form of a ring and an iPhone; FIG. 3 shows an example of a wearable device that includes an SMI sensor and is positioned on a finger of a user.

Apple's patent FIG. 5A above illustrates a detailed view of the positioning and interaction of the SMI sensor relative to a finger of a user; and FIG. 9 illustrates an example processes flow for using an SMI sensor to detect one or more physiological parameters of a user.

Apple's second granted patent is distinguished by the addition of 21 new patent claims supporting their ring device invention as follows:

1. An electronic device, comprising: a housing configured to be worn by a user; a sensor contained within the housing and comprising: a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) positioned in the housing and configured to output coherent light toward the user; a detector configured to: detect a portion of the coherent light that is returned towards the sensor; and generate electrical signals corresponding to displacements of a body part of the user based on the portion of the coherent light; and a transmitter operatively coupled with the sensor and configured to transmit sensor data based on the electrical signals.
2. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the housing comprises a band configured to wrap around the body part of the user and maintain a gap between the VCSEL and a skin surface of the user when the housing is worn by the user.
3. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising a processing unit configured to determine a heart rate of the user from the sensor data.
4. The electronic device of claim 3, further comprising a display configured to output a visual representation of the heart rate.
5. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the detector is configured to generate the electrical signals corresponding to displacements of tissue beneath a skin surface of a user.
6. The electronic device of claim 5, wherein the generated electrical signals correspond to displacements of blood vessels of the user.
7. The electronic device of claim 1, further comprising a lens coupled with the housing and configured to focus the coherent light on the body part when the housing contacts the user.
8. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein: the VCSEL is a first VCSEL; the detector is a first detector; the sensor comprises: a second VCSEL positioned in the housing and configured to output coherent light toward the user; and a second detector configured to detect a portion of the coherent light emitted from the second VCSEL and returned towards the sensor.
9. The electronic device of claim 1, wherein the VCSEL and the detector comprise a same structure.
10. An electronic device, comprising: an emitter configured to output coherent light toward a body part of a user when the electronic device is worn by the user; and a detector configured to detect a portion of the coherent light returned from the user and generate electrical signals based on the portion of the coherent light; a transmitter operatively coupled with the sensor, the transmitter configured to transmit physiological data based on the electrical signals; and a housing that at least partially encircles a limb of a user and contains the emitter, the detector and the transmitter, the housing configured to position the emitter at a distance from the body part of the user.
11. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein the emitter and detector comprise a self-mixing interferometer (SMI) sensor.
12. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein: the emitter is a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL); the detector is the VCSEL; and the VCSEL is configured to output the electrical signals based on a difference between the outputted coherent light and the portion of coherent light returned from the user.
13. The electronic device of claim 9, further comprising an optical element positioned between the emitter and the user, wherein the optical element is configured to direct the coherent light toward the body part of the user.
14. The electronic device of claim 12, wherein the optical element is configured to direct the portion of the coherent light returned from the user to the detector.
15. The electronic device of claim 9, wherein: the emitter is configured to output the coherent light to subcutaneous structure of the user; and the detector is configured to detect the portion of the coherent light returned from the subcutaneous structure.
16. The electronic device of claim 14, wherein: the subcutaneous structure comprises a blood vessel of a user; and the generated electrical signals correspond to movement of the blood vessel of the user.
17. A method for measure physiological parameters of a user, the method comprising: generating coherent light within a vertical cavity surface emitting laser (VCSEL) of a self-mixing interferometer (SMI) and emitting the coherent light towards a body part of the user; detecting, using the SMI, a self-mixing interference between the generated coherent light and a portion of the coherent light returned toward the Marginating, at the SMI, an electrical signal based on the self-mixing interference; determining a physiological parameter based on the electrical signal; and outputting the physiological parameter.
18. The method of claim 16 wherein: determining the physiological parameter comprises determining displacement of a subcutaneous tissue of the user; and the displacements of the body part are tracked for a duration.
19. The method of claim 17, wherein the physiological parameter comprises a heart rate of the user over the duration.
20. The method of claim 18, wherein outputting the physiological parameter comprises displaying a visual indication of the heart rate.
21. The method of claim 16, wherein the SMI sensor is positioned in a housing that at least partially encircles a limb of the user.

For full details, review granted patent 11992337.

Beyond a focus on Health, Samsung has other ring patents for possible future applications here and here. Other Apple ring patents include these 01, 02 and more under our "accessories" category.