Google is planning on using ANC earbuds for heart rate sensing

Google is working on tech to harness its fleet of ANC-powered headphones and earphones for heart rate sensing using a ‘simple software upgrade’. It comes from a research detailed by Google using “Audioplethysmography (APG).

How Google Earbuds Can Help With Heart Rate Sensing?

According to Google, the ear canal is an ideal location for health sensing. This is because the deep ear artery within the canal forms an intricate network of small vessels that are extensively spread across the auditory canal.

Google is planning to use audio plethysmography to send out low-intensity ultrasound using its active noise cancellation (ANC) earbuds or headphone speakers. The mechanism works by triggering the signal that echoes within the canal and onboard feedback microphones intercepts the signal much like sonar.

The system then analyses skin displacement and variations in the heartbeat that modules the echoed ultrasound giving a peek into the heart rate reading. Google has created a process to measure heart rate variability (HRV) as well. The tech works even with a bad earbud seal or when the music is playing, however, researchers have found that the measurements could be impacted due to body motion. Thus, a multi-tone approach helps calibrate the best frequencies to get a quality pulse waveform that counteracts variations created due to body motion as well.

As per the test subjects are concerned, Google has performed two sets of studies involving 153 people. There was a medium error of 3.21% across participants with a 2.70% medium error in measuring heart rate variability. The search engine giant claims that the data is not impacted by skin tones as seen in existing heart rate sensors. The seal conditions and the ear canal size have no impact on the accuracy as well.

Google adds that the APG tech onboard TWS ACS headphones could be a smart solution to implement with a simple software upgrade. There are a few barriers in place, however, the tech giant thinks that APG is better in performance than traditional electrocardiograms (ECG) and photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors, although we aren’t 100% sure about these claims yet.

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