Trash Your Food Journal; BioRing Will Measure Your Intake

Okay, you can stop rolling your eyes. We called it in this blog, that the future of wearables would include technology to measure your calorie intake. Well, the folks at BioRing took it up a notch. They’re gonna measure macros as well as most other health metrics. If they succeed, the world will be their oyster.

(Source: gugisworld.wordpress.com)

The BioRing wearable, which humorously autocorrects to “boring,” is anything but. It’s on Indiegogo right now, which is very exciting.

Despite coming in the smallest form factor available for wearables, a ring, the BioRing promises to measure the things you’ve come to expect a fitness wearable, but with some serious icing on top; calorie, protein, and fat metrics. All you have to do is eat.

If they can deliver a product that even kind of measures these, then they will be untouchable.

Super Small Form Factor

(Source: indiegogo.com)

The world is not despondent for wearable rings. We talk about a few popular options in this blog.

Most wearable rings wrap limited functionality around your digits. They are notification masters, keeping your face out of your smartphone or they work like keys, opening access to services at the swipe of a hand. What they all have in common is inconspicuousness.

While the wearable market is growing fast, it’s impossible to know how many continue to wear their new toys after the novelty wears off. The best estimates are dropoffs rates as high as 33%.

It’s equally impossible to know for use why people stop wearing them, but being a nuisance must be high on the list. Implanted chips would be the easiest form factor, but who wants that? A ring that could be left on may be the acceptable alternative.

Here is what the first ring will be…

Standard Health Metrics

(Source: indiegogo.com)

Yup, yup, yup. We’re gonna get the heart rate data, the activity intensity, the distance and steps covered, sure, but these seem more like boxes checked for BioRing.

The device will not only track the old standards, like calories burned and sleep, but calories consumed and water levels. Not only that, but it will break those calories consumed into macronutrients, like fat and protein.

The technology works by measuring glucose levels and water measurements. It’s so astounding, it’s almost irrelevant how accurate they can be. Breaking the seal on these type of metrics may create a landslide of other manufacturers racing to catch up or pass BioRing.

Look out FitBit, it’s about to get all caloric in here.

The Category Killer

(Source: indiegogo.com)

While most wearables come with proprietary software or apps, which will often allow users to input their food, these systems have yet to prove utilitarian in the long run.

We’ve had the ability to track calorie burn with a fraction of a percentage away from 100% accurate since Bodymedia (RIP) introduced the Bodybugg in the early 2000’s. The more important metric, if one is trying to lose weight (and about 9 out of 10 of us are), is the metric that accounts for 80% of the calorie equation: food intake.

People don’t want to have to log their meals. Despite what you see on Instagram, they don’t even want to take pictures of their food to have an app guess the calories. They just want to eat, then have a computer tell them how much they are consuming. Welcome, BioRing.

(Source: indiegogo.com)

Let’s not get too far ahead of ourselves. BioRing is promising Moby Dick in a Flipper world.

There are precedents for this sort of technology revolution, like the first iPhone or the first televisions, but both were backed by organizations filthy with cash.

The BioRing team may be full of smart people, but they are crowdfunding their efforts. In their favor, however, one of wearable’s original Cinderella stories was the Pebble Watch, which was crowdfunded. Many people credit Pebble for kicking Apple in the Watch.

Will BioRing become vaporware? Maybe. Is this a fight worth cheering for? Heck yeah!