Wearable smart ring Oura could soon let you make payments, confirm your identity and much more

What will new Oura Rings do?

The current generation of the Oura Ring can modestly sit on the finger and track the heart rate, sleep, steps, and much more. Its makers have now acquired a digital identity signal platform called Proxy that can open up a new world of possibilities for the smart ring.

Proxy's technology replaces the need for access cards, badges, apps, and passwords by storing the information on mobile devices in a contactless manner. It has also been used to facilitate contactless payments for smartwatches for services like Apply and Google Pay, so it won't take a quantum leap to replicate this handy feature on the Oura ring too.

"This deal expands Oura’s leadership in health wearables and signals our ambitions to integrate digital identity technology with our existing hardware and software offerings,” said Tom Hale, CEO at Oura in a press release.

“We are thrilled to collaborate with the innovative Proxy team to expand our addressable market, paving the way for new opportunities in areas such as payments, access, security, identity, and beyond, fueling future growth."

Oura handles a lot of personal data associated with the user's health, protecting information about cards and keeping it safe is also not a major challenge for the company. It only makes sense that in the future the modest finger ring can simply be tapped to confirm a payment without having to type in a security pin or provide fingerprint authentication.

The only hurdle is that in the absence of a display screen, the company may not allow the storing of more than one card for payments or have to innovate ways of switching them. The other way around it would be Oura expanding its product portfolio to move beyond rings. Whatever it turns out to be, Oura customers surely won't be disappointed.

The age of wearables has only just begun.