Humans have started to appreciate how important it is to monitor their heart rate after the spread of Covid-19 virus. There has also been a rise in the demand for devices that can measure things like body temperature and blood oxygen saturation levels as well as heart rate and respiratory rate. With the advent of smartwatches like the Apple Watch Series 7 and Samsung Galaxy Watch 4, smart devices can now keep tabs on people’s health status.
As strange as it may sound, a smartphone camera may be used to accurately measure a person’s heart rate. It was initially reported this year that Google Fit, the company’s health-tracking software, would include heart rate and respiratory rate tracking for the Google Pixel smartphone. Google has now made the feature available on iOS. The app uses an advanced algorithm to track changes in the user’s physique using the smartphone camera to produce relative readings.
With the help of Google Fit, iPhone users can now keep track of their heart and respiratory rates. If you have an iPhone or a Pixel, Google Fit can use the front and back cameras on these phones to measure your heart rate in beats per minute, as well as your respiration rate in breaths per second. An advanced algorithm is used to detect small variations in the feed from the camera sensors when a person’s heart and breathing rates are being measured via their smartphone’s camera.
Using the Google Fit app, Apple iPhone owners can monitor their heart rate by keeping their fingertips on the back camera. To ensure an accurate reading, make sure your finger is firmly planted on the camera sensor. As blood flows through a user’s finger, the Google Fit application recognises the tiniest change in colour and provides a reading accordingly. Flash can be used if the environment is too dark to take a reading. With Google Fit, the user’s heart rate can be measured in as little as a few seconds. As with the Apple Watch, users may then save their measurements to the app for later use.
Google Fit’s latest feature allows iPhone users to monitor their respiratory rate as well. The iPhone’s selfie camera is used to measure the breath rate. Keep your iPhone’s front camera in a place where it can see your torso. This way, you can check your respiratory rate. Respiratory rate is then measured by observing the user’s chest movements. When taking readings of respiratory rate, it is important that the user is situated in an area that is well-lit.
Using a smartphone’s camera sensors to get heart- and respiratory-rate measurements isn’t always 100% accurate or less accurate than other devices, like an Apple Watch Series 7. They are simply ‘indicators’ of true vitals (not subs). Google Fit for iOS doesn’t need to be connected to the internet to use the health monitoring feature. It’s different from other third-party apps. Users may now monitor their vitals at any time, from any location, using their Apple iPhones.
