NERVA Ring

The NERVA Ring resembles a traditional smart ring but includes additional sensors, such as electrodermal activity sensing, enabling highly accurate stress tracking. The large smart ring companies focus only on heart-rate data and target athletes. NERVA Ring focuses on both heart rate data and electrodermal activity to provide the user with detailed information about their stress, stimulation, and nervous system activation. It is meant for everyone, not just specialized athletes. However, it tracks everything you would want a wearable to track: heart rate, blood oxygen, temperature, steps, calories, but most importantly, electrodermal activity. The ring detects electrodermal activity through an analog circuit involving an operational amplifier and two electrodes. It passes a small current through your finger and measures how conductive your skin is. When the user is stimulated (even to the slightest degree), the finger's sweat glands open, allowing current to pass through more easily. This measurement is so precise that simply thinking or seeing something will cause a spike in the user's EDA. The goal is for NERVA Ring to be a tool everyone can use to improve their stress via biofeedback training. NERVA Ring started as an award-winning Vermont State Science Fair project. After seeing its success in the fair, I decided to iterate and improve its design. This involved creating dozens of flexible polyimide PCBs and reflowing 0201 components at home. It has been over a year, and I am still iterating and improving. The ring currently uses industry-standard sensors, custom CNC'd metal parts, and a polished titanium housing.

Here are some photos at the Vermont Science Fair:

NERVA Ring Progression:

The NERVA Ring has come so far since its first iteration last August. Now, it features an industry-standard PPG sensor (BPM, HRV, SpO2, Temp), an improved GSR circuit (operational amplifier- electrodermal activity sensing), and a precise IMU for step and movement tracking. This combination of hardware sensors allows NERVA Ring to be the most accurate and detailed wearable that is cased in a small, thin, ordinary ring.

Because NERVA Ring has been through dozens of iterations, a final finished product has yet to be made. However, CAD renderings show that the NERVA Ring will look like this when properly enclosed in its titanium housing, sealed with an epoxy resin: