Mumbai, India (CU)_ Google revealed about its new app Google Fit that will enable users to use their phone’s camera to test their heart and respiratory rates. Initially, the app will be featured in Pixel phones and later will be incorporated into Android devices. To measure the respiratory rate, the users will have to position the head and upper torso in view of the front camera of the phone. To calculate the heart rate, the users have to place the finger on the rear camera lens. After the testing are done, users can save them to observe and follow their routine health using the Google Fit app.
Shwetak Patel, Google Health Director of Health Technology, clarified that this app works using the in-built sensors such as the microphone, camera, and accelerometer in the smartphones. He said, “Thanks to increasingly powerful sensors and advances in computer vision, these features let you use your smartphone’s camera to track tiny physical signals at the pixel level — like chest movements to measure your respiratory rate and subtle changes in the color of your fingers for your heart rate”.
Patel said that in designing these characteristics, the testing underwent and completed initial clinical trials to verify the algorithm will function “in a variety of real-world conditions and for as many people as possible”. He said, “Since our heart rate algorithm relies on approximating blood flow from color changes in someone’s fingertip, it has to account for factors such as lighting, skin tone, age and more in order to work for everyone”.
Apart from easily monitoring the heart and respiratory rates, Google Fit also shows on a single screen the daily and weekly goals of a user, heart points, recent workouts, and sleep results. The tech giant formally acquired Fitbit for $2.1 billion earlier this year. This deal not only provides a stage for a prospective Google smartwatch, but also offers Fitbit’s enterprise health company and data asset to Google ownership. During the time, Google claimed that its interest in Fitbit “has always been about devices, not data” and it assured that it will stay committed to protecting the privacy of Fitbit users.
