GoKawiilKaitlyn Cimino / Android Authority
TL;DR Google has developed a smartphone-based system that estimates heart rate and resting heart rate using only the phone’s front-facing camera and on-device AI.
The technology reportedly delivers wearable-like accuracy, with resting heart rate estimates coming within five beats per minute of a Fitbit Charge 6 in testing.
While still a research project, the system could make heart-health tracking accessible to billions of smartphone users without requiring a smartwatch or fitness band.
Google thinks your next heart-rate monitor might already be sitting in your pocket. In a newly published research, the company has detailed a system that can estimate a person’s heart rate and resting heart rate using only a smartphone’s front-facing camera. The technology could eventually bring wearable-like health tracking to people who don’t own a smartwatch or fitness band.
For years, tracking heart rate has largely been the job of devices strapped to your wrist. Products like Fitbit trackers and smartwatches have made it easy to monitor your cardiovascular health throughout the day. The catch is that not everyone owns one, and many people never will. Smartphones, on the other hand, are nearly everywhere. That’s the opportunity Google is chasing.
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The system, called Passive Heart Rate Monitoring (PHRM), uses the phone’s selfie camera to analyze skin changes as blood flows through the body. These tiny fluctuations are invisible to the human eye, but modern cameras and machine learning models can detect them. Google’s implementation captures an 8-second video clip after a user unlocks their phone with face authentication. An on-device AI model then analyzes the footage and estimates the user’s heart rate.
Phone-based heart-rate tracking isn’t entirely new. Some devices have previously used the rear camera and flash, while others have relied on optical fingerprint sensors to estimate heart rate. Google’s approach, however, takes a different route. Instead of requiring users to actively initiate a measurement, the system can estimate heart rate using the selfie camera during normal phone use and build a picture of resting heart rate over time.
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