Google is raising the bar for fitness and wellness capabilities on smartwatches with the new Pixel Watch 3. But one of the most meaningful capabilities it brings to the table is sensing a loss of pulse event, which the company calls “loss of pulse detection.”
Think of it as a wearable analog for car crash detection, but something that doesn’t rely on motion physics and data collected by sensors fitted inside a phone. Instead, the Pixel Watch 3 relies on biosensing information and, more specifically, heart activity.
Loss of pulse is usually linked to a critical health emergency that would need urgent medical attention. Google says such events could include anything from a cardiac arrest, respiratory failure, blood circulation problem, a drug overdose episode, or poisoning from varied sources.
For emergency responders, the concept of “golden hours” is all about reaching a victim and providing them with critical medical care within 60 minutes of a traumatic event. For any situation where a person’s pulse stops, the Pixel Watch 3 will call emergency services and relay the location information.
Google says loss of pulse detection will “share an automated message with critical context, along with your location.” Notably, the feature will start rolling out in September but will initially be limited to the EU market.
It seems the company is awaiting regulatory clearance in other markets to make this feature available on the Pixel Watch 3. Google says it worked with health care experts to bring this critical feature to life but warns that even with state-of-the-art AI playing a key role, chances of a false positive alert can’t be ruled out.
Irrespective of the potential for rare failures, the intent behind the whole system is simply amazing. This would be the first time that Google is making a meaningful leap over the Apple Watch in years, something that has an amazingly high potential for saving lives by filling a crucial gap.
Moreover, given the kind of work Google’s Deepmind unit has done at the intersection of AI and science, we can safely expect more such facilities to appear on Google hardware down the road. I can’t wait for the U.S. FDA to clear it and hear all the success stories that originate courtesy of pulse-loss sensing on the Pixel Watch 3.
