Summary:
ŌURA has launched Oura Labs, a platform within its app allowing users to test experimental features and contribute to the development of wearable technology. Oura Labs enables members to provide feedback, engage in discussions, and participate in research studies. The first feature, Symptom Radar, helps users detect early signs of potential illness by monitoring changes in key biometrics. This initiative aligns with recent research suggesting wearable devices like Oura Ring can detect acute infectious diseases.
Key Takeaways:
- ŌURA launched a new in-app platform called Oura Labs, designed to incorporate user feedback into research and development.
- Oura Labs allows users to opt-in to test experimental features and participate inda research studies.
- The first experimental feature available for testing is Symptom Radar, which monitors biometrics like temperature trends and heart rate variability to detect early health changes.
ŌURA, maker of Oura Ring smart ring, launched a new in-app platform, Oura Labs, designed to accelerate innovation by bringing members into the research and development process.
Now, they will have the opportunity to opt-in to test experimental features, provide feedback, and contribute to discussions about Oura and the future of wearable technology. Oura members will also be able to participate in research studies conducted by internal Oura teams, including science, product, and marketing, as well as studies conducted in collaboration with partner organizations and academic institutions.
“At Oura, our product roadmap is built on the valuable input and requests from our members, and we’re excited to integrate further with our community by offering a direct way to contribute to the research and development of new features,” says Holly Shelton, chief product officer at Oura, in a release. “Simultaneously, we’ll be leveraging the power of citizen science through recruitment opportunities for a variety of research studies powered by Oura to harness the full potential of wearable technology as a public health solution.”
Symptom Radar: A New Feature
The first feature available for testing in Oura Labs is Symptom Radar. When your body starts to respond to fatigue, high activity levels, or impending illness, the signals often show up in your biometric data before you may recognize physical changes to your health.
Symptom Radar gives members the ability to pre-emptively detect changes in their wellness by monitoring certain biometrics, including temperature trends, respiratory rate, resting heart rate, and heart rate variability. If early deviations from their baseline are detected, members will be notified and can choose to activate Rest Mode or adjust their daily goals to minimize strain. Once Rest Mode is activated, Symptom Radar will be deactivated to allow members to focus on rest and recovery.
Symptom Radar comes on the heels of a new paper from researchers at the University of California San Francisco and the University of California San Diego which evaluated whether consumer wearable devices can be used to detect the onset of acute infectious diseases, particularly those characterized by fever.
The findings are the latest results from the TemPredict study and showed that participants’ Oura data aligned with their self-reported fevers, suggesting that consumer wearable devices hold the potential to detect if a person is becoming sick with an illness characterized by fever.
Future of Oura Labs
At launch, members who opt into Oura Labs will be able to test and learn about select experimental features in the research and development phase, while also providing real-time feedback and questions for consideration. Features within Oura Labs are considered to be in the “discovery phase” and may end up being removed, reworked, or promoted to a permanent spot in the app’s feature set based on considerations such as member engagement and feedback.
Beyond experimental features, Oura Labs will also include the latest published research made possible by the Oura Ring, as well as future opportunities for members to learn about and take part in upcoming studies run by internal teams, partner organizations and institutions, and members of the medical advisory board at Oura.
Spanning disciplines across sleep, reproductive health, metabolic health, fitness, stress, behavioral science, and more, members of the medical advisory board will lend their expertise, insights, and research to enhance the Oura Labs offering.
“Scientific and technological rigor is at the core of both our product and our company, resulting in hundreds of granted patents, pending patent applications, and registered trademarks, and we have an amazing group of experts, both internal and external, who are using Oura Ring to impact health at a larger scale,” says Shyamal Patel, senior vice president and head of science at Oura, in a release. “Through this new in-app experience, we are providing a way for members, researchers, and the Oura team to work together towards trailblazing developments in wearable technology and public health more broadly.”
Oura Labs is available on all Oura Ring devices for iOS members.
