C-ring wearable ring with adjustable size mechanism
Find Innovative SolutionsGenerate Solutions
Solution Overview
Problem
Wearable ring devices often suffer from poor skin contact due to anatomical variations, leading to inaccurate physiological data measurements, as they fail to maintain constant contact, especially around joints and knuckles, resulting in inconsistent pressure and optical interference that affects light transmission and sensor readings.
Innovation Solution
A C-ring form factor with adjustable sizes, utilizing mechanical components like latches, screws, hinges, and flexible regions to transition between discrete ring sizes, ensuring better fit and consistent contact by adjusting the radial distance between the ends of the ring housing, allowing for engagement of different detents or size-adjustment inserts to accommodate varying finger sizes.
Engineering Contradictions & Design Principles
Engineering Contradiction Analysis
1Reliability
If a fixed-size wearable ring device is used, then the device structure is simple and manufacturing is easy, but the device cannot accommodate anatomical variations and achieves poor skin contact
Solution Approach 1:
The ring housing is designed with a flexible region that allows dynamic adjustment of the ring size. The flexible region enables the ring to adapt its circumference to match different finger sizes while maintaining consistent skin contact pressure, resolving the contradiction between fixed structure and adaptive fit.
Solution Approach 2:
The ring housing is segmented into multiple regions including a flexible region and adjustable size mechanisms. This segmentation allows independent optimization of each region - the flexible region provides continuous adaptation while mechanical adjustment components provide discrete size selection, together achieving reliable skin contact across varying anatomies.
2Adaptability or versatility
If the ring size is increased to accommodate larger fingers, then the device can fit more users, but the contact pressure decreases leading to inaccurate measurements
Solution Approach 1:
The adjustable size mechanism allows the ring to dynamically adapt to different finger circumferences. By enabling size adjustment, the ring maintains optimal contact pressure across a wide range of finger sizes, ensuring measurement precision is preserved while adaptability increases.
Solution Approach 2:
The ring size parameter can be changed to match different finger anatomies. This parameter adjustment ensures that the contact pressure remains within the optimal range for accurate physiological measurements, regardless of the user's finger size.
3Adaptability or versatility
If multiple size variants are manufactured, then the device can accommodate all finger sizes, but the manufacturing cost and device complexity increase
Solution Approach 1:
A single ring housing design with adjustable size capability serves multiple size requirements. Instead of manufacturing separate rings for different sizes, the universal design with flexible region and adjustment mechanisms allows one device to fit multiple finger sizes, reducing manufacturing complexity and cost while maintaining adaptability.
Solution Approach 2:
The ring housing is segmented to include adjustable components that allow a single base design to be configured for multiple sizes. This segmentation enables mass production of a standardized base unit with added flexibility, rather than producing multiple specialized size variants.
Data Source
AI summary
A wearable device, such as a wearable ring device, configured to transition between multiple discrete ring sizes is disclosed. The wearable ring device may include a discontinuous ring-shaped housing that extends radially around at least a portion of a circumference of the wearable ring device, where a first end and a second end of the discontinuous ring-shaped housing are separated from one another by a radial distance and configured to move relative to one another. The wearable ring device may further include one or more sensors positioned at least partially within an inner circumferential surface of the discontinuous ring-shaped housing, and one or more mechanical components configured to transition the wearable ring device between the multiple discrete ring sizes.