Future Samsung Galaxy Ring upgrade could add a new sensor for external temperature reading

When it comes to health and wellbeing, technology has always been at the forefront. The rise of devices like smartwatches have capitalised on the consumer need to better understand what's happening within our own bodies.

After a period as the most dominant health tech category on the market, smartwatches could start to give way to another type of device in the near future – smart rings. As the name probably suggests, these devices offer the functionality of a smart watch in a much less cumbersome footprint.

Up until midway through last year, the market for smart rings was dominated by start ups and other smaller companies who specialised in the technology. Then, the launch of the Samsung Galaxy Ring brought it into the mainstream.

Now, rumours are flying about the potential features of a follow up to the Samsung device. That includes the uncovering of a new patent, which suggests the ring would be able to read external temperatures, as well as the internal temperature sensing required for health and wellbeing.

That suggests it would be able to distinguish between the temperature of the user, and that of an external person or source. It will need to be good at that, too, as any misreading of that data could scupper the accuracy of the health data.

The report – shared by 91Mobiles – also describes a motion sensor in the device. That could be used to pre-empt certain features based on how you're moving, though it's unclear exactly why that would be useful.

Overall, I'm left feeling slightly skeptical about the feature. It's not entirely new – we saw something similar on the Google Pixel 9 Pro models – but I have the same reservations I did with that device. Namely, that is – what use does this really have?

Sure, you could use it to precisely determine the heat coming from a coffee cup before you pick it up. But by the time you get close enough, you'll feel any heat emanating, anyway. It feels like something left over from the Covid-19 times, and I question how it might be used in the modern day.