Would be cool but I can go days without charging. Usually charge mine when I am in the shower and getting ready for the day.
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I get up to 36 hours myself
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Apple Watch Blood Oxygen Monitoring Feature Found in iOS 14 Code
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Would be cool but I can go days without charging. Usually charge mine when I am in the shower and getting ready for the day.
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Actually, this is false.
In order to measure SpO2 you require a red & infrared LED array - not green & infrared. Green LEDs are very good at detecting a pulsatile flow of a red substance (ie. Blood) even in tricky situations where there is lots of movement; red, not so much. This is why most fitness trackers use green LEDs for pulse rate detection during workouts.
A pulse oximeter needs a red & infrared LED due to the unique characteristics of the difference between the absorption spectra of oxygenated haemoglobin & deoxygenated haemoglobin at very specific light frequencies - which just happen to be red (660nm) & infrared (940nm).
Unless the old hardware has a dormant red LED which I’m pretty sure it doesn’t, this will require new hardware. But I would also question the need for it for the general public, unless it is coupled with sleep monitoring.
Disclosure: I’m an Anaesthesiologist (and an Apple Developer).
How do you explain this then?
US5830137A - Green light pulse oximeter - Google Patents
A reflectance pulse oximeter that determines oxygen saturation of hemoglobin using two sources of electromagnetic radiation in the green optical region, which provides the maximum reflectance pulsation spectrum. The use of green light allows placement of an oximetry probe at central body sites...
patents.google.com
Seems like the most likely reason and now that it is expired it's time to release an update to enable it.
I wouldn’t use it but many would...would also mean better battery life so for me that’s worth it.
Interesting... but this has not made its way into an actual product - medical or consumer - and it also misses the critical importance of the *ratio* of red & infrared absorption between deoxy-Hb and oxy-Hb.
That the 'green wavelength' has the biggest difference in extinction coefficients is rather meaningless as using the differnces in the ratio of absorption between red & infrared allows far greater precision. Not only are the extinction coefficients still quite wide at red & infrared, but importantly they are *inverse* so the differences are amplified.
I doubt it's going to be good enough for medical applications though even if it does 'sort of' correlate to a standard pulse oximeter.
Actually, this is false.
In order to measure SpO2 you require a red & infrared LED array - not green & infrared. Green LEDs are very good at detecting a pulsatile flow of a red substance (ie. Blood) even in tricky situations where there is lots of movement; red, not so much. This is why most fitness trackers use green LEDs for pulse rate detection during workouts.
A pulse oximeter needs a red & infrared LED due to the unique characteristics of the difference between the absorption spectra of oxygenated haemoglobin & deoxygenated haemoglobin at very specific light frequencies - which just happen to be red (660nm) & infrared (940nm).
Unless the old hardware has a dormant red LED which I’m pretty sure it doesn’t, this will require new hardware. But I would also question the need for it for the general public, unless it is coupled with sleep monitoring.
Disclosure: I’m an Anaesthesiologist (and an Apple Developer
I'm a Family Doc (traditional w/extensive hx of Bio and Chem background). Great post! O2 monitoring capabilities would be great addition not only for sleep monitoring (apnea) but also in exercise physiology.
I’m surprised you would say this in post-Covid days.But I would also question the need for it for the general public, unless it is coupled with sleep monitoring.
Disclosure: I’m an Anaesthesiologist (and an Apple Developer
I’ve read one of the primary decision factors
re: related to whether or not you should go to the hospital with Covid complications is
if your pulse oxygenation goes below 90 and stays there even if you take deep breaths.
Doctors have posted YouTubes for qualitatively determining your pulse ox but they sound so... iffy, like:
If you can count from 1 to 30 in your native language in less than X seconds (10?) and not be out of breath, then you pulse ox is probably above ?93?
Would I feel like attempting that counting test if I felt out of breath? Would I trust the results?
Or would I just rather put a pulse oximeter on my finger or check my Apple Watch, and be able to tell my doctor, “My pulse ox won’t go above 90%, what should I do?”
From the first hand accounts posted to Twitter and Reddit of husbands / wives taking care of their spouses, when conditions started heading downhill, they were measuring their spouse’s pulse ox once an hour.
My perception is related to Covid, the measurement a Pulse Oximeter creates is as important to give your doctor as the measurement from a thermometer.
Covid-19 is the way Apple should use to market this but as someone with cardiac related issues related to autoimmune disorders and who bought their apple watch specifically for monitoring their heart, and hopefully one day their O2, the pulse-ox measurement would be an absolute godsend. (and if you could tie in blood sugar, it would be even better as that seems to drop when my cortisol does... all that stuff is tied together in strange ways)
Pre-Covid, I found myself hypoxic and in the hospital twice, once in 2018 and once in 2019 with my heart rate falling to dangerous levels. Talk of the apple watch being ale to measure your heart and oxygen were the reason for my purchasing my Apple Watch 5 and I was sorely dissapointed after the fact to find this had been left out due to regulatory issues.
I'm willing to sign any petition needed to get the red tape removed to allow this feature to finally be perfected and implemented.
Cristy
Pre-Covid, I found myself hypoxic and in the hospital twice, once in 2018 and once in 2019 with my heart rate falling to dangerous levels. Talk of the apple watch being ale to measure your heart and oxygen were the reason for my purchasing my Apple Watch 5 and I was sorely dissapointed after the fact to find this had been left out due to regulatory issues.
I'm willing to sign any petition needed to get the red tape removed to allow this feature to finally be perfected and implemented.
Cristy