The Apple Watch has features that can monitor a wearer's heart rate, called an optical heart rate monitor. However, it seems that it could do more than that - it can potentially measure a person's blood oxygen levels.
iFixit recently opened up the Apple Watch in one of their teardowns discovering that the heart rate sensor was not just the usual sensor in smartwatches and fitness trackers. It was found out to be a pulse-oximeter. A pulse-oximeter/pulse oximetry is a procedure being used to measure the oxygen level (or oxygen saturation) in the blood. A sensor device is usually placed on a thin part of the patient's body (commonly a fingertip, earlobe, or across a foot for infants).
Knowing oxygen levels is helpful, especially for hikers, athletes, and for those who have asthma. For instance, climbers can have a better sense of how they are adjusting to heights. Further, it is another measurement that could give a more holistic view of a person's health and fitness.
Why nobody noticed it is said to be understandable, because pulse-oximeters have the same function to optical heart rate monitors, which shine a light into the skin to measure changes in a person's blood flow. As the blood volume increases per pulse, it changes light transmission through the skin, much like the sensor similar to the one in what a device's camera measures
"Oximetry, however, takes the additional step of testing the how oxygen levels affect the way your blood interacts with light - basically, the more oxygen, the brighter the red of the blood, and the more infrared light it absorbs," explaines The Next Web. The advantage of using pulse oximetry is that the method offers "simple, relatively cheap and non-inasive technique."
It could be possible that Apple has not said anything about it is because of possible FDA suspicions, which could possibly be subject to closer inspection. Fruther, it may be that the company is not ready yet. However, it is expected that Apple might insert added functionality in a future update of the Apple Watch.
"There's no point in spending money on a more complex module otherwise, and it wouldn't be the first time a smartwatch had hidden features be activated later," the publication added.
The iFixit teardown review of the Apple Watch:
- Reparability score: 5
- The watch band is easily removed.
- Removing the screen is difficult, but not impossible.
- Once you're inside, the battery is quite easy to remove.
- Removing any other component is essentially impossible.
- The encased S1 makes board-level repairs impossible.
Click for the complete Apple Watch teardown.
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