{"id":13076,"date":"2022-08-24T15:12:48","date_gmt":"2022-08-24T15:12:48","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/24\/this-smart-mood-ring-is-supposed-to-monitor-mental-health-without-changing-colors\/"},"modified":"2022-08-24T15:12:49","modified_gmt":"2022-08-24T15:12:49","slug":"this-smart-mood-ring-is-supposed-to-monitor-mental-health-without-changing-colors","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/scienceandnerds.com\/2022\/08\/24\/this-smart-mood-ring-is-supposed-to-monitor-mental-health-without-changing-colors\/","title":{"rendered":"This smart mood ring is supposed to monitor mental health \u2014 without changing colors"},"content":{"rendered":"

Source: https:\/\/www.theverge.com\/2022\/8\/24\/23318664\/happy-ring-smart-ring-wearables-mental-health<\/a>
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Startup Happy Health is looking to give the mood ring a \u201csmart\u201d makeover. Instead of dubious color-changing stones, it has created the Happy Ring, which aims to alert users about their mental health using biometric sensors and artificial intelligence. <\/p>\n

The Happy Ring, which just received $60 million in funding, features a custom electrodermal activity (EDA) sensor that monitors changing stress levels in real time. Essentially, the device works by detecting when your sympathetic nervous system \u2014 the thing that regulates your fight or flight response \u2014 starts raring up.<\/p>\n

\u201cAs we start to have difficult thoughts or experience strong emotion, our brain responds to help us respond to that stimuli,\u201d says Dustin Freckleton, a medical doctor and Happy Health CEO. \u201cEDA sensors measure the electrical changes that occur on the hand in response to the small amounts of sweat that start to be produced on the palm of the hand.\u201d Freckleton went on to explain that Happy Ring\u2019s EDA sensor then looks for sweat gland openings or sweat production, which is then fed into an algorithm that identifies your emotional state. The ring then continually adjusts the AI model to an individual person\u2019s data, as opposed to comparing that person\u2019s data to a predetermined user set.<\/p>\n

\u201cWe tell you about your mood on an ongoing basis so you understand when you\u2019re calm, alert, or tense,\u201d says Happy Health and Tinder founder Sean Rad. \u201cAnd we take all that data and personalize exercises for you that are scientifically proven to help manage your stress and improve your mood and overall wellbeing.\u201d Rad also added that, from a security and standards perspective, the device is HIPAA compliant but didn\u2019t go into further detail regarding Happy Health\u2019s privacy policy and how data is stored.<\/p>\n

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A look at the Happy Ring app.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Happy Health<\/cite><\/p>\n

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Those exercises include activities like breath work, meditation, and cognitive behavioral therapy-based journaling. The exercises can all be completed in-app and are simultaneously tracked by the ring itself as you complete them. <\/p>\n

Other wearables like the Fitbit Sense<\/a>, Sense 2, and even Manchester City\u2019s forthcoming smart scarf<\/a> also feature EDA sensors as a means of tracking stress or emotion. According to Freckleton, the benefit of a ring is that it\u2019s better suited than wrist or torso-based trackers to measure stress as it\u2019s located on the hand itself. (The Fitbit Sense, for instance, requires you to place your hand over the display to get a reading.) <\/p>\n

The device\u2019s sensors also include four skin electrodes, four light wavelengths, accelerometers, and two temperature sensors. It also tracks sleep and overall activity and has an estimated battery life of up to three days. <\/p>\n

On the surface, a lot of this sounds familiar to features you\u2019ll find in an Oura Ring<\/a> or a Whoop 4.0<\/a> \u2014 minus the custom EDA sensor. However, Rad says the Happy Ring is much more focused on a user\u2019s mental state, whereas other wearables on the market track metrics like heart rate and heart rate variation as a proxy for how well your body has recovered from physical stress. <\/p>\n

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The Happy Ring uses a custom-made EDA sensor.<\/em><\/figcaption>Image: Happy Health<\/cite><\/p>\n

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\u201cThey [Oura, Whoop] don\u2019t have any metrics around mental health,\u201d says Rad. \u201cWe\u2019re not necessarily giving you metrics that are about waking up and helping you physically perform. They talk about strain and recovery. We\u2019re talking about uniquely measuring aspects of your brain health.\u201d <\/p>\n

Freckleton also claims the Happy Ring\u2019s personalized algorithm is more accurate than what\u2019s currently on the market, especially since the company has built its EDA sensor from the ground up with \u201cmedical-grade\u201d accuracy. He pointed to a study in the journal Sleep<\/em><\/a> comparing the device\u2019s accuracy to several other wearables like the Actiwatch 2, Fitbit Charge 4, Whoop 3.0, and the second-gen Oura Ring. Granted, the study only observed a sample of 36 participants over 77 nights, but peer-reviewed studies of any kind are rare when it comes to health and wellness gadgets. <\/p>\n

Which is exactly what the Happy Ring is \u2014 a wellness gadget. It\u2019s not at all intended to diagnose any sort of mental condition. According to Rad, the device is \u201cdesigned to clinical standards, but not a clinical device.\u201d <\/p>\n

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