Smart Ring Maker Oura Buys Gesture-Recognition Startup
Doublepoint’s gesture control technology for wearables is demonstrated during CES Unveiled in Las Vegas on Jan. 4.
Photographer: Patrick T. Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Oura Health Oy is buying a gesture-recognition startup, setting up the company to eventually add such controls to its popular line of smart rings.
Oura said it is acquiring Helsinki-based Doublepoint Technologies Oy, which specializes in technology that allows users to control wearable devices with small hand movements using a combination of artificial intelligence and biometric data. The purchase will guide future versions of Oura’s smart rings, where hand gestures could play a central role to the experience, along with possibly voice control, Chief Executive Officer Tom Hale said in an interview. Terms of the deal were not disclosed.