The tech giant revealed the features of the Fit app’s camera-based heart and respiratory rate tracker, which relies on the power of a phone’s camera Both trackers will give you a way to measure your pulse and breath rates even without a wearable sensor, though they’re only making their way to the Fit app for Pixel devices worldwide for now. This device will start rolling out on Monday, March 8th.
For using the heart rate tracker, you’ll have to hold your finger over the rear camera and apply light pressure — the app will calculate your heart rate by looking at tiny changes in color under your skin. The respiratory rate tracker is a bit more complicated to use because you’ll have to make sure that the front camera has a good view of your torso for around 30 seconds. You’ll have to prop up the phone on a stable surface, sit and make sure your head and chest area in the frame. The feature then calculates your breaths per minute by measuring the small movements your chest makes.
It is yet to be figured out that how accurate the trackers are: Things like hats, masks, and loose clothes could affect the respiratory rate tracker’s results, for instance. If you think they could be useful but don’t have a Pixel device, you’ll just have to wait for the wider rollout. Google promises to expand its availability to more Android devices in the future.
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