We started PULSE by Wareable to bring to life some of the fascinating chats we have with those shaping the wearables industry – and this week is a great example.
After the launch of the Pixel Watch 3, Google reached out to PULSE to offer a conversation with one of its research scientists who had been working on one of the biggest new features of the new smartwatch: loss of pulse detection.
Loss of pulse detection will alert emergency services if the Pixel Watch 3 deems the user has suffered a catastrophic cardiac event. We’ve seen such emergencies recently in high-profile sporting fixtures, such as during the European Championship in 2021 when Denmark’s Christian Eriksen collapsed on the pitch.
But what if that happened and no one was there to see?
It might sound simple, but the feature has been in development at Google for years – and draws on previous work for Fall Detection and other safety features.
PULSE spoke to Jake Sunshine, Google Research Scientist, and Edward Shi, Product Manager for Personal Safety at Google for Android and Pixel Watch about what it takes to build these features.
PULSE: Can you explain what your Research Scientist role entails and introduce us to loss of pulse detection:
Jake Sunshine: “As a research scientist at Google, I lead a team that explores various sensing surfaces to identify opportunities for health and safety applications. We focus on how the devices around us can be more helpful from a health, wellness, and safety perspective.”
“Loss of pulse detection is a first-of-its-kind safety feature designed to address a critical issue. So, we’ve all seen situations where someone loses their pulse in public, perhaps on a sports field.”
