Google Pixel phones can now read your heart rate and breathing — here's how it works

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Google Pixel phones tin can now read your heart rate and breathing — here's how it works

(Epitome credit: Shutterstock)

Google Pixel users no longer need a smartwatch to measure their centre rate or animate, thank you to a new upgrade to the Google Fit app.

Google appear last calendar month that the upgrade was coming to Pixel phones, and that it would permit users to mensurate their respiration and heart charge per unit via the cameras. That feature has at present rolled out to "supported Pixels" via an update to the Google Fit app.

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We already knew that this would be a timed exclusive to Pixel phones, with the feature arriving on other Android devices at an undefined later engagement, but the word "supported" is still interestingly ambiguous here.

Does that mean whatever Pixel device that can physically run the software, or any that's officially still supported by Google? If it's the latter, then that rules out the Pixel ii and Pixel 2 XL, which reached the end of their back up period last October.

The feature volition give Pixel users a way to bank check their heart rate and respiration, without needing a wearable that constantly measures their metrics. Measuring your heart rate involves you placing a fingertip over the rear camera, which then analyzes subtle color changes in the skin to give a pulse reading. Google's testing shows it to exist authentic to ii%, though plainly information technology'south designed for one-off testing, rather than providing constant updates the way the best smartwatches do.

Respiration tracking, meanwhile, uses the front end-facing camera. Place the phone in front of you with your head and body in view, and after monitoring your chest movements, the app volition calculate your breaths per infinitesimal. Google claims that in testing it's proved authentic to within i jiff per minute; withal, the company stresses that neither it nor the middle-rate measurement is intended for medical purposes.

(Image credit: Google)

Despite this, Google clearly feels quite confident in the accuracy of its engineering, which should requite it the edge over the various apps that claim to practice the same thing, without whatever real scrutiny.

"We developed both features — and completed initial clinical studies to validate them — so they piece of work in a diverseness of existent-world conditions and for as many people as possible," Shwetak Patel, Google Wellness's Director of Wellness Technologies wrote back in Feb. "For example, since our heart rate algorithm relies on approximating blood menses from color changes in someone's fingertip, it has to account for factors such as lighting, peel tone, age and more in order to work for anybody."

If you own a Pixel phone, you'll exist able to try it for yourself from today. Continue an eye on updates for the Google Fit app, and do let us know how it works for you.

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Freelance contributor Alan has been writing about tech for over a decade, roofing phones, drones and everything in between. Previously Deputy Editor of tech site Alphr, his words are establish all over the web and in the occasional magazine too. When not weighing up the pros and cons of the latest smartwatch, you'll probably find him tackling his ever-growing games backlog. Or, more likely, playing Spelunky for the millionth time.

Source: https://www.tomsguide.com/news/google-pixel-phones-can-now-read-your-heart-rate-and-breathing-heres-how-it-works

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