Yup you read that right you can use your Android phone’s camera can measure your heart and respiratory rate with the help of the Google Fit app. Heart rate and respiratory rate are two vital signs commonly used to assess your health and wellness. And measuring them with your phone’s camera has been made possible.
To measure your respiratory rate. You just need to place your head and upper torso in view of your phone’s front-facing camera and breathe normally. To measure your heart rate, simply place your finger on the rear-facing camera lens.
Android phone’s camera can measure your heart and respiratory rate
Samsung smartphones used to measure your heart rate by placing your finger on a sensor on the back of the phone. That feature died when smartwatches took over the market. And now Google plans to bring it back, and without adding any extra hardware to your smartphone.
Measuring heart rate, which is determined by your blood flow. Will require you to place your finger on your phone’s camera lens. Using “powerful sensors and advances in computer vision”, the camera can spot small changes in the color of your finger.
This works similarly when measuring respiratory rate, which is a measurement of the rate at which breathing occurs. Google put these new features through clinical trials to test their real-world effectiveness. But they also say that these measurements aren’t meant for medical diagnosis or to evaluate medical conditions.
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. For example, using chest movements to measure your respiratory rate. And subtle changes in the color of your fingers for your heart rate.
These features will be available in the Google Fit app for Pixel phones, with plans to expand to more Android devices.