Apple Collected Over 18,000 Hours of Health and Fitness Data for Apple Watch

peterdevries said:

You are absolutely wrong. The quality of the data presented back to the user is as much in the hardware as in the software. Although many of these watches use the same hardware system to measure the raw data, it is the measuring algorithm that makes the difference.

If you do a bit of research then you will realize that a well implemented algorithm on this LED system is able to measure heart rates very accurately and is even able to analyze other metrics that the competition is unaware of being possible. Examples are systolic pressure, heart rate anomalies etc. I'm not an expert myself, but the guys that I work with have shown me things that would blow your mind.

Click to expand...

Algorithms are software based. The hardware and technology is still the same.

MrXiro said:

Algorithms are software based. The hardware and technology is still the same.

Click to expand...

No. Software is part of the technology and you cannot separate the two in this situation. What matters is what data is generated and how it is being analysed and used.

Or do you also argue that two hardware identical MacBook Pros, one with OS X and one with Windows 8 on it are also the same?

kdarling said:

From my recent readings, it's clear that using the same heart rate LEDs to determine blood pressure and oxygen content, is well known technology.

In fact, HRMs are trimmed down versions of that.

Click to expand...

Yes, and oxygene level sensors are actually not very expensive to buy. I'm guessing they wanted to do it on the wrist, but somehow that spot didn't get reliable result compared to say the finger.

its good to know they aren't just throwing a new product out there for the sake of doing it. glad to hear there has been that much research on the fitness side of it!

peterdevries said:

No. Software is part of the technology and you cannot separate the two in this situation. What matters is what data is generated and how it is being analysed and used.

Or do you also argue that two hardware identical MacBook Pros, one with OS X and one with Windows 8 on it are also the same?

Click to expand...

Yes the hardware and tech in two identical Macbooks running different operating systems would be exactly the same. Just because software is better written doesn't mean the technology is the same. Apple excels at writing software that runs well on less cutting edge hardware, but that doesn't mean that the tech is any different.

The original question posed; was if the Apple Watch uses a different form of HRM technology than what is already on the market... and to that question it does not. Software is a different matter.
I'm comparing a rubber tire with a rubber tire, the Apple Watch uses the same HRM that is already on the market; but the plebians on this website can't seem to comprehend that answer.

But as another poster pointed out the UP3 actually has a superior form of wrist based HRM tech than the Optical Sensor that the Apple Watch has.