A ring that keeps on bringing
Oivita’s original ORing had some good ideas – it was a penis wearable for heterosexual couples designed to provide women with more pleasure via vibration – but it fell down in a key area: comfort. Now the company is back with the ORing Plus, and it’s looking to improve not only in comfort, but several other areas as well.
The $79 ORing Plus, available on Kickstarter now, works like this: a male slides the ring onto his penis and has it rest at the shaft, making sure the bulbous part of the wearable is up at the top. This is because the ORing Plus’s curvature is designed to vibrate against the clitoris during intercourse.
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At the same time, the companion app throws out a number of different metrics intended to help you gauge performance: there’s a heart rate sensor and Sp02 sensor for heart rate and blood oxygen, and they’re used in conjunction with accelerometers to determine things like thrust count, thrust beat and stamina. You can share these metrics – anonymously or by username – on a ranking board within the companion app if you want. You can finally prove that you’re the best.
The Plus, however, improves on the original with a new silicone material that’s more stretchable and can fit more people, according to Amy Lin, Oivita’s sales and marketing rep. Anthony Chang, a UI designer on the companion app, said the internal structure is also slightly different, and that the mechanics work differently.
Mainly, the team has reworked the vibration motors and controls so that they’re better able to focus on certain spots. Previously the vibration motor was a little too general, and it was difficult to direct the vibration pattern via the companion app. That’s important because the ORing Plus isn’t just for intercourse; it can be used for foreplay as well.
Women can use the ORing Plus while their partners see heart rate in real time and can control both the strength and frequency of vibration. Similarly, Chang said the Plus will eventually be able to be used by long-distance couples.
As for the smarts here, the metrics are an effort to help users break down their performance. “You’re able to compare your duration for each session, calories burned, thrust count and speed,” Chang said. Because you also get your stamina level, the idea is that you can use these metrics to gradually work on improving your performance. Or, you can even work with your partner to identify ways to change things up.
For instance, perhaps you and your partner want to get a little more rough and wild. You can track your thrust count and speed metrics to gauge whether your performance in that style is improving or not. Or, maybe stamina is an issue and you want quantifiable data to help motivate you to improve.
While the ORing Plus is mostly built for heterosexual couples and gay couples, Chang says the team is working on a female version of the ORing that’ll come with different health stats. This version would be more useful for lesbian couples and for scenarios in which women take the lead in the bedroom.
Crowdfund this?
This is not a question you can answer alone. Chang told Wareable that the company has completed test production and development on the Plus, and that all of the Kickstarter money will be going toward marketing. Even better, the Plus is supposed to start shipping to backers in July 2018 as Oivita is ready to go.
If you plan to use the ORing Plus for self love, and you’re curious about spicing up how you pleasure yourself, then this is probably a Kickstarter worth checking out. Otherwise, you’re going to have to talk with your partner and see if this is something they’re willing to try out.
If you’re in a long distance relationship, this could be a way to up the intimacy in a way that phone sex cannot. If you’re looking to spice up your love life, you should probably make sure you’re using it with a long-term partner rather than springing it on casual encounters. If you and your partner are down to experiment with some wearables, the ORing Plus sounds like an interesting idea.