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Soon you will no longer need a smartwatch to measure your heart rate or breathing. Google announced last month that an update to Pixel phones will allow users to measure their breathing and heart rate through cameras.
Android police are now reporting that this feature will be rolled out to “compatible pixels” from today via an update to the Google Fit app.
We already knew this would be a timed exclusive for Pixel phones, with the feature arriving on other Android devices at an undefined later date, but the word “supported” is still interesting here.
Does that mean a Pixel device capable of physically running the software or any device officially still supported by Google? If it’s the latter, that excludes the Pixel 2 and Pixel 2 XL, which reached the end of their support period last October.
The feature will give Pixel users a way to check their heart rate and breathing, without the need for a portable device that constantly measures their metrics. To measure your heart rate, you place a finger on the rear camera, which then analyzes the subtle color changes in the skin to give a pulse reading. Google tests show it’s 2% accurate, although it’s obviously designed for spot testing, rather than providing constant updates like the best smartwatches do.
Breath tracking, on the other hand, uses the front camera. Place the phone in front of you with your head and torso in sight, and after monitoring your chest movements, the app will calculate your breaths per minute. Google claims that in testing it was found to be accurate to less than one breath per minute; however, the company stresses that neither it nor the heart rate measurement is intended for medical purposes.
Despite this, Google clearly feels pretty confident in the accuracy of its technology, which should give it an edge over various apps that claim to do the same thing, without real scrutiny.
“We developed both features – and performed initial clinical studies to validate them – so that they work in a variety of real-world conditions and for as many people as possible,” wrote Shwetak Patel, chief technology officer of the Google Health Health in February. “For example, since our heart rate algorithm relies on an approximation of blood flow from the color changes of the fingertip, it must take into account factors such as lighting, skin tone, age and more. yet to work for everyone. ”
If you own a Pixel phone, you can try it out for yourself starting today. Keep an eye out for updates to the Google Fit app and let us know how it’s working for you.
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