Ruixin Xue
Incora
Design Committee project
2023
“By women. For women.” Redefining wearable health through empathy, accuracy, and aesthetic intelligence.
Incora Health is developing the world’s first smart earring for women’s health, designed to provide actionable insights based on the menstrual cycle. Our team transformed this vision into reality through concept sketching, ergonomic modeling, and component integration studies.
I contributed to earring and charging case design, UX flow development, material and manufacturing exploration, and prototype assembly. The work included clinical trial prototypes, CMF packs, hinge and connector design, and direct collaboration with factory partners. The design is now patent pending and moving toward market launch.
Incora is designed to be seen—or not—on your terms. Worn like jewelry, built like technology—Incora invites a new kind of intimacy between health and self-expression.
Women’s bodies deserve better data — and better care.
Source: Rock Health, 2022; Caroline Criado Perez, “Invisible Women”
Less than 5% of global health tech funding is focused on female-specific innovation
For decades, health technology has relied on male-centric data models, resulting in inaccurate readings and generalized insights for women.
Hormonal cycles, stress responses, and recovery patterns are often misunderstood or ignored—especially across life stages such as pregnancy, postpartum, and menopause.
As a result, women’s health remains both underrepresented and undervalued in the data that drives modern medicine.
“Helping each woman care for herself while advancing knowledge for all.”
By moving health sensing from the wrist to the ear, Incora achieves more stable, clinically validated insights — precision made beautiful.
Most wearables rely on wrist-based sensing, where temperature and heart-rate readings can fluctuate due to environmental exposure or poor blood flow. Incora Health takes a different approach: the earlobe is highly vascularized and thermally closer to the body’s core, allowing more stable and accurate measurements.
Using optical and biofeedback sensors, the smart earring tracks temperature, heart rate, oxygen levels, and respiration through direct blood-flow detection—unobstructed by bone or muscle.
Why an Ear-Based Design Delivers Greater Precision
Precision Through the Ear — Stable, Clinically Validated Sensing
By moving health sensing from the wrist to the ear, Incora achieves more stable, clinically validated readings — turning medical precision into wearable beauty.
Unlike the wrist, which is affected by bone, muscle, and daily motion, the earlobe offers a uniquely steady and bio-reliable location for sensing. It is highly vascularized, with rich blood flow directly beneath the skin, allowing for consistent and accurate data capture.
Because the earlobe contains no bones and minimal muscle movement, it minimizes motion artifacts and “signal noise,” ensuring clear, uninterrupted readings even during daily activities.
This reliable placement provides continuous measurement of temperature, heart rate, oxygen levels, and blood flow — all without being influenced by external movement or environmental conditions.
The ear offers clearer signals — closer to core temperature, richer blood flow, and up to 6× stronger readings than wrist wearables.
Diagram adapted from ACM CHI ’25 paper “PPG Earring: Wireless Smart Earring for Heart Rate Monitoring.”
Prototype Clinical Trial Prototype — Design for Bio-Safe Validationvelopment & Clinical Validation
To support Incora Health’s clinical testing phase, we developed a specialized prototype optimized for medical safety and biospec compliance. This version of the earring was custom-built to meet clinical trial standards, ensuring both user comfort and biological safety during data collection.
The prototype featured real gold-plated surfaces to ensure hypoallergenic contact and accurate thermal readings, while the assembly process used nickel-free components and bio-safe adhesives to avoid skin irritation.
Every unit was hand-assembled and tested to confirm both sensor reliability and safe long-term wearability in preparation for human trials.
This phase bridged industrial design and biomedical application, turning a wearable concept into a clinically validated health device.
Charging Case — Elegant Utility
The Incora charging case was designed for both beauty and intelligence. Compact and travel-friendly, it safely stores and charges two earrings simultaneously. Inside, subtle indicator lights confirm correct placement, while an outer breathing light softly projects color to communicate charging status.
Wireless charging eliminates visible ports, creating an experience that feels effortless and refined — extending Incora’s philosophy of smart health through elegant design into every interaction.
