Smart rings have progressed rapidly within the past couple of years — in the mass market space as well as research labs. At CES 2025, we saw Circular reveal a smart ring with atrial fibrillation (AFib) detection, while Ultrahuman put smart ring tech inside gold and platinum shells.
Enter Viv Health, a South Korea-based digital health startup, with its Viv Ring. This one does things differently, in quite a literal fashion. Its claim to fame, apart from a polished design? Personalized AI-generated sleep sound.
The Viv Ring pulls all the tricks you would expect from an average smart ring, which includes heart rate tracking, heart rate variability, stress levels, blood oxygen saturation, activity, and sleep.
The device doesn’t stop there, however. It combines all the biomarker readings and employs AI algorithms to create personalized sleep sounds — or, as Viv Health likes to call it, “generative sleep aid sound technology.”
The smart ring will synthesize sounds inspired by ocean forests, birds chirping, ocean waves, deep sea, and rainfall. But instead of serving stock audio, Viv mixes them with monaural and binaural tunes to supposedly enhance sleep quality.
Would you like some AI sound for your sleep, sir?
Viv claims that its tech stack carefully assesses the whole set of biosensing data, “constructing AI algorithm-driven personalized sleep audio that significantly improves sleep quality.”
Now, those are rather novel claims, as scientific research has mostly focused on white/pink noise and multi-audio stimulation. The consensus, however, varies. Research and meta-analyses lean more toward the inconclusive end, while others claim that white noise and sound are good for sleep quality.
Since Viv is creating custom sounds using generative AI algorithms, we are in an entirely new territory here. The company, however, harbors grander plans before 2025 comes to an end.
A Pro version of the Viv ring is already slated for launch later this year, and this one will allow continuous blood pressure sensing and AFib detection. The former is no longer an alien concept.
At CES, Novosound showcased an ultrasound blood pressure measurement sensor that is destined for smartwatches and smart rings. Samsung has already implemented it on its smartwatch, even though it uses a PPG sensor to estimate blood pressure levels.
Viv Health is currently in the process of getting the regulatory certifications and aims to put the Viv Ring on sale next month.
