Scientists revealed that the health monitoring carried out by smartwatches can be affected depending on the skin color of the person who is using them. The discovery comes after an investigation carried out at the University of Alberta that analyzed the data collected in 10 previously carried out scientific studies in which 460 people.
This is the first study of its kind to examine how skin pigmentation can affect the ability of devices to measure people’s health.
“People should be aware that there are some limitations for people with darker skin tones. dark when using these devices, and the results should be taken with caution”, explained Dr. Daniel Koerber who is one of the co-authors of the research.
The expert commented that according to the results they studied, heart rate readings displayed by smart watches are significantly less accurate in people of color than in white subjects.
Koerber explains that the mechanism used by watches to measure heart rate is to point a laser at the skin, to detect how much light is absorbed. A greater absorption of the light beam would indicate that the blood flow in the veins is greater and therefore the person would have a higher heart rate.
However, in the case of people with dark complexions due to the dark tone of their skin, their skin captures a greater proportion of the light beam. This is misinterpreted by the devices as a reading of a high heart rate even if the person is at rest.
The expert indicated that In general terms the algorithms used by smartwatches are developed using white people as test subjects , which can lead to the results not being entirely accurate when it comes to people of black race.
For this reason they consider that it is important that black people are also used when developing the algorithms that will later be used to measure the health indicators of the users. This will help to have more accurate results regardless of the skin color of those who use the devices.
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