CES 2024: The smart ring maker is branching out
Smart ring upstart Ultrahuman is expanding from traditional health and fitness trackers to ‘home health’, launching a tracking box at CES 2024 that monitors the user’s home environment.
In contrast to the relatively intimate form factor of something like the Ultrahuman Ring Air, the Ultrahuman Home is instead a relatively non-descript box designed to remain stationary and log the likes of air quality, artificial light, temperature, and noise levels in the home.
It then hopes to pass information and insights onto the user in the hope of aiding healthy habits. If it spots your home’s natural light lacking, for example, it might recommend that you make changes to ensure your circadian rhythm or vitamin D intake doesn’t suffer.
It’s not yet clear whether it syncs up with the company’s smart rings to deliver more accurate insights into things like sleep – given that the Home is also used to detect noises like snoring during the night – but we do know it’s able to also assess particulate matter (PM), smoke, and humidity to aid respiratory health.
As the company did with its Ring Air, the Home will be launched on Kickstarter initially.
The campaign will go live toward the end of January with an expected shipping date of July, with backers expected to shell out $349 for the Home.
Traditionally, we would be cautious about crowdfunded campaigns – especially ones with such a tight turnaround. Ultrahuman has proven itself in this arena, though, and that makes the Home a pretty compelling device on paper.
The real proof will be in everyday use, as ever – and a lot will also rest, we think, on the link-up with its smart rings. If Ultrahuman gets that right, it could be onto a winner.
