Key result
Custom smart rings estimate heart rate within ~5 BPM of clinical-grade reference devices.
Why the study?
Rigorous validation of smart rings for unobtrusive cardiovascular vital signs monitoring is limited by the scarcity of open, multi-parameter datasets.
Observational (n=54)
No
The HealthRing dataset provides a synchronized, multi-parameter physiological dataset from 54 adults to support the development and validation of cardiovascular sensing algorithms for smart rings.
Supports ring-based vital sign monitoring development; leaves open clinical validation in larger cohorts.
Smart rings enable unobtrusive monitoring of cardiovascular vital signs via photoplethysmography (PPG), yet rigorous validation is limited by the scarcity of open, multi-parameter datasets. We present HealthRing, three synchronized cohorts from 54 adults: (i) scripted physiological stimuli (Study 1), (ii) semi-free-living daily activities (Study 2), and (iii) motion-intensive treadmill running with natural arm swing that induces substantial motion artefacts (Study 3). Two custom rings–reflective and transmissive–record infrared/red PPG and 3-axis accelerometer data at 100 Hz, time-aligned to clinical-grade heart rate, respiratory rate, peripheral oxygen saturation, and blood pressure. On the controlled+daily cohorts (Study 1/2), physics-based and supervised benchmarks reach mean absolute errors of 5.33 BPM (HR), 2.98 breaths/min (RR), 1.72% (SpO 2 ), 12.98 mmHg (SBP), and 7.64 mmHg (DBP). On the treadmill cohort, fine-tuning cuts HR error from 36.91 to 23.99 BPM and RR error from 5.44 to 4.61 breaths/min relative to zero-shot transfer, stress-testing motion robustness. A publicly available toolkit (RingTool) provides preprocessing, classical signal processing, and deep learning pipelines. HealthRing closes critical gaps in ring-based cardiovascular sensing and supports algorithm development across controlled labs, daily life, and in-the-wild running.
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Tang et al. (2026) conducted an observational in Healthy (n=54). Custom smart rings (reflective and transmissive PPG) vs. Clinical-grade reference devices was evaluated on Mean absolute error (MAE) of cardiovascular parameters. Benchmark models evaluated on the HealthRing dataset achieved mean absolute errors of 5.33 BPM for heart rate, 2.98 breaths/min for respiratory rate, and 1.72% for SpO2.
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