Like many of us, Google is more interested in our health. The company today announces new features that enable those without portable sensors to read their respiratory and heart rate. Starting next month, Pixel owners will be able to use their phone cameras to measure their pulse rate and breathing rate via Google Fit. The company said it also plans to expand to more Android devices over time.
If the feature is available on your phone, you can open the Fit app to take your measurements by tapping on the new maps on the home page. Google recommends your breathing speed by looking at the movement of your chest, so you should see your torso. Meanwhile, it uses small color changes under your skin to calculate your heart rate, for which you need to place your finger on the rear camera. The Fit app will guide you how to frame yourself using the front camera for breathing pace, and it’s not yet clear how well it will work. If the baggy clothes are on, will the system still be able to see if you are breathing?
You should also stop your phone for about 30 seconds to record the breathing rate, which is longer than it sounds. Plus, this implementation also means you will not rely on this feature to monitor your wrist while exercising unless you plan to hold your phone and look at the screen while running or dancing. After all, it’s nice for people without fitness trackers to have a way to get these metrics whenever they want.
If this method of heart rate tracking sounds familiar, you might think of Samsung’s Galaxy S5, which had a separate sensor under the camera. But apps that allow you to use your phone to measure your pulse have been around since 2014, so this is not exactly a new concept. But because Google is the software that it is, it offers some benefits. In addition to the initial clinical trials and validations to ensure the accuracy of its products, Google has also made efforts to ensure that its computer vision-dependent method will work on all skin tones, ages and light conditions.
You will also be able to see your pulse and breath measurements along with your other stats in the Fit app. The company did not share any guidelines on minimum camera specifications to use this feature (which currently makes sense, as only Pixel phones are currently supported). But in the end, Google may be able to reach a wider audience than most if, for example, they can bring it to devices with less sharp cameras or use Android Go.
For those concerned about their privacy, Google performs these calculations on the device, and you can choose to save the resulting measurements on Fit. You can also remove it from your account settings at any time. Remember that these new features have not received FDA approval and are also not designed for medical diagnosis or to evaluate medical conditions.