A prototype smart ring developed by engineers at the University of California appears to have cracked one of the holy grails of health wearables: non-invasive blood sugar measurement. The data is sent to a companion app on a paired iPhone.

While existing smart rings rely purely on biophysical data extracted from sensors like those embedded into the Apple Watch, this ring also tracks chemical biomarkers by analysing sweat …

Today’s smart rings work in exactly the same way as the Apple Watch, using exactly the same sensors. These enable the collection of an impressive range of data, including resting heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, temperature, cardiovascular age, activity, sleep cycles, and more.

But supplementing existing sensors with molecular ones could dramatically increase the amount of health data that can be gathered. You don’t even have to work up a sweat, as CNET reports that the technology is able to pull sweat from your skin.

Engineers at the University of California, San Diego, believe they have created the first smart ring that uses finger sweat to track chemical biomarkers. The ring is only a prototype, but it shows the potential for future smart rings to continuously monitor the body on a molecular level instead of relying solely on biophysical data.

In a paper published in Nature Communications on July 23, the engineering team reports that the new smart ring uses sweat to continuously monitor up to four of the following biochemical measurements: glucose, ketones, vitamin C, uric acid, lactate and alcohol concentrations.

The ring could be particularly useful for those with Type 1 diabetes.

“The ring’s ability to track both glucose and ketone continuously and simultaneously would greatly benefit optimal insulin dosing for the management of diabetes,” said Joseph Wang, professor in the Aiiso Yufeng Li Family Department of Chemical and Nano Engineering

Testing showed that it achieved very similar accuracy to invasive continuous glucose monitors and blood draws.

The prototype is rather chunky and has a short battery life of just 12 hours, but commercial versions would likely be able to make significant improvements on both elements. I’d love to see what Apple engineers could do with this technology.

• Oura Ring 5
• Apple products on Amazon Renewed
• Official Apple Store on Amazon
• Discounted AirPods Pro 3
• Wireless CarPlay adapter
• AirTag holders and accessories
• Mac Pro-style Mac mini casing

Screengrab from the paper published in Nature | CC4.0