Google Fit already has many ways to let you know you’re out of shape – a common problem during the ongoing pandemic. But he is discovering a new way to measure his heart and respiratory rate, using only his smartphone’s camera. The feature is due to arrive next month, and although it is an exclusive Pixel to start with, it should arrive on other Android phones later.
In addition to the simple utility, the features are honestly impressive when it comes to the “geek factor” behind how they work, and we can’t wait to try it out for ourselves. The respiratory rate monitor aligns your face and upper body in certain positions towards the front camera in a way that allows you to track the movement of your chest up to the pixel level to determine how fast or how slow you are breathing.
The heart rate monitor is even more fascinating. Again, he uses his phone’s camera, but this time tracking small changes in the color of his fingers to determine his heart rate. That’s really one thing, and it turns out that a smartphone’s camera is accurate enough to measure these very small differences. If, as I did when I heard the news, you try to look down with your bare hands to detect this color change, you probably won’t succeed – so-called “pulsatile photoplethysmographic signals” are usually too small for our eyes to catch.
This is not just a hacked machine learning model special for startups. Google has done clinical studies to validate its accuracy in real-world conditions and works with a wide variety of skin tones, ages and lighting.
It is not known when this feature could reach other phones, but Google hopes to start launching it for Pixels starting next month – perhaps as part of Pixel’s expected fall in March.
