What you need to know
- Samsung announced that its Galaxy Watch 6 has demonstrated the ability to “predict” fainting spells through a collaboration with Chung-Ang University Gwangmyeong Hospital in Korea.
- The company says the Galaxy Watch 6 with the PPG sensor can detect fainting about five minutes in advance with 84.6% accuracy.
- Samsung says it plans to further increase the level of preventive care features on its wearable devices in the future.
Samsung has announced that its Galaxy Watch has hit a major milestone in its efforts to add “preventive” health features.
Its purpose was to capture a user’s heart rate variability and then run it through an AI algorithm. Samsung reports that this method identified that the user was about to faint “up to five minutes in advance.” Although not 100% accurate, the post states that the watch can do this with 84.6% accuracy, but with a diagnostic sensitivity of 90%.
Android Central’s Tech
To achieve something like this is good in itself. I look forward to seeing how this will work in everyday life. What systems will come online for the watch to assist the user? Think about taking a hard fall. Your watch recognizes this, checks you, and if no manual input is received, an ambulance is called. If you detect fainting, perhaps your watch will notify you to take a seat or start a call immediately. I’m just guessing, but hopefully it will reach our wrists in the future.
Professor Junhwan Cho of the hospital’s department of cardiology was involved in the collaboration, saying, “40% of people experience vasovagal syncope in their lifetime, with one third experiencing repeated episodes.” Both parties realize that unconsciousness is not necessarily life threatening. However, this has a consequence – a fall – which can pose a serious risk of injury to the individual.
Samsung says achieving this level of predictability is “crucial” for a preventative feature approach in wearable health. Speaking of which, Samsung has plans to expand the health monitoring capabilities of wearable devices like the Galaxy Watch. There are some hurdles that Samsung will have to overcome, but we could see a future where faint predictions will be the newest feature of the Galaxy Watch.
take care of yourself
If high, users will be notified to make important lifestyle changes, such as getting more sleep, managing their stress, or changing their diet. Recently, Samsung finally launched its long-awaited blood pressure monitoring on devices ranging from the Galaxy Watch 4 to the Watch 8.
