It was in March that Tech giant Google came up with a ground-breaking announcement of Google Fit able to measure one’s heart and respiratory rates using their smartphones. This news spread like wildfire. Instantly became the talk of the town. This feature was said to be available to the Google Fit app exclusively to its Pixel phone users. Google also plans to expand to its other Android devices in the future.
This was after Google’s newest endeavor of acquiring the Fitbit for a whopping $2.1 billion. This acquisition not only does steps up a stage for a potential Google Smartwatch but also gives Google the ownerships to Fitbit’s health business and wealth of data assets. Users just need to place their head and upper torso in view of the front-facing phone camera for those who wish to measure their respiratory rate. For measuring Heart rate the user just has to place their finger on the rear-facing camera lens. Mind-blowing right!
Once the measurements have been taken the users simply have to store and save them in the Google Fit app to monitor and track their day-to-day wellness. On asked how it’s measuring these heart rate and respiratory rate, Google Health director of health technologies Shwethak Patel explained that these features rely on the sensors that have been built into the smartphone, such as its camera, microphone, and accelerometer. Thanks to increasingly power sensors even in affordable smartphones and advancements in computer vision, these features let use one smartphone’s camera to track even tiny physical signals like your chest movement to measure your respiratory rate and subtle changes in the color of your finger for your heart rate.
Pixel underwent and completed initial clinical trials to validate the algorithm cloud work in a variety of different world conditions and that too with many people while developing the features. Since our heart rate relies on approximating blood flow from color changes in someone’s fingertip, it has to account for factors such as lighting, skin tone, age. Adding to be able to measure heart and respiratory rate soon Google Fit also displays user daily stats such as daily goals, weekly goals, heart points, workout, and also sleep monitor.
Blackcoffer Insights 25: Sri Vishnu S, Kristu Jayanti College (Bangalore)
