Google’s Pixel Watch provides fall detection
Google introduced Tuesday it had rolled out fall detection options for its Pixel Watch.
In keeping with a blog post, the wearable will use its movement sensors to find out if the consumer has taken a tough fall. If the watch would not sense any motion for about 30 seconds, it can vibrate, sound an alarm and show an on-screen notification, the place customers can say they’re OK or that they want help.
If they do not reply after a few minute, the watch will robotically try to name emergency providers and play an automatic message. Customers even have the choice of speaking to a 911 operator themselves if they will.
The autumn detection options will be activated on the Updates web page on the Watch Companion app or on the Pixel Watch within the Private Security app.
THE LARGER TREND
Fall detection is not a brand new pattern for wearables. Apple first added the feature to its line of watches in 2018, and Samsung has a similar tool on a number of of its Galaxy Watch wearables.
Different digital well being and tech firms have ventured into fall detection as nicely, notably for senior care. In late 2021, Amazon introduced it was partnering with third parties to incorporate fall detection in its Alexa Collectively distant monitoring service. It currently lists suitable gadgets from Vayyar, SkyAngelCare and AltumView. One other firm, SafelyYou, raised two funding rounds in 2021.
Google unveiled its Pixel Watch within the fall of final yr. Although the tech large owns Fitbit, Pixel Watch is the primary watch underneath the Google model.
In its announcement revealing fall detection options, Google mentioned the wearable may inform the distinction between an precise fall and vigorous exercise that would set off false alarms — a possible drawback for competing Apple Watches. Final month, the New York Times reported iPhone and Apple Watch car crash detection and fall detection had been generally inundating 911 dispatchers in snowboarding cities with false alerts.
“We skilled this course of utilizing a broad number of human and simulated fall knowledge and different movement patterns to precisely detect actual falls and decrease potential false alarms,” Paras Unadkat, product supervisor for Pixel Watch, and Edward Shi, product supervisor for Pixel Security, wrote in Google’s weblog publish. “We additionally examined this function in opposition to high-energy actions that concerned affect, sudden drop or extreme arm actions — assume actions like burpees, leaping or swimming — to keep away from these varieties of actions from triggering a false notification.”
