Switching from the world of keypad phones to smartphones was quite a long journey, right.? But now, replacing our analogue/digital watches with smartwatches is gaining a lot of popularity because they have sensors that help track your health and motivate you to do physical activities.
Smartwatches have a lot of exciting features, but have you ever thought about what their sensors do? Smartwatches can do many things, but nowadays, most users buy them to track their fitness.
They are the prospect of the watch industry and encourage people to stop being lazy and start working hard to stay fit and healthy. Some inexpensive smartwatches can only have the essential sensors, while high-end smartwatches have every sensor you might want. A smartwatch is made with all these sensors and other parts.
Smartwatches are designed to perform many functions, such as receiving calls, dialling, replying to texts or emails, scheduling calendars, etc. It includes the processor, sensor, wireless chip for wifi/Bluetooth/cellular connectivities, and GPS chip.
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Different Sensors In Smartwatches
We must be very disciplined and do physical activity regularly to stay healthy, but it can be tough to stay disciplined without the right tools. So, to solve this, modern smartwatches come with sensors that can track many things in your body and give you all the information.
Nowadays, a smartwatch works like a doctor’s; you may take it where you go. Here, you get a list of all the sensors that can be found on a smartwatch and explain how they work so that you can use them efficiently.
Accelerometer:
Most fitness bands operate on accelerometers sensor. Accelerometers are sensors that monitor the movements of your body by counting the number of steps you have taken throughout the day. This sensor also tracks your sleep and your trends during sleep. It gives you information to learn more about your sleeping patterns and effectively improve your sleeping habits.
The only disadvantage is its accuracy unless you use an excellent wearable device. As per research, sleep trackers are only found to be accurate 78% of the time. Regarding estimating how long it took for people to fall asleep, the accuracy dropped to near 38%.
Magnetometer:
A magnetometer is known as a compass. It works with GPS coordinates to determine the exact location and direction in where you are standing. It recognizes the magnetic fields, both the magnitude and the direction of the area, so that it may find your exact position in the coordinate space.
Ambient Light Sensor:
Smartwatches include ambient light sensors to set the display’s brightness automatically. This sensor detects the surrounding light to set the brightness of your screen the right way.
It also helps save the battery on your smartwatch. But basically, this sensor prevents your screen from stinging on the light towards your eyes when you are in dark environments. Moto 360 was the first device to feature an ambient light sensor.
Gyroscope:
A gyroscope is a sensor used to calculate your body’s orientation and angular rates. When you move your wrist to check the device, a gyroscope on your wristwatch will inform you in a second.
Let’s understand by a simple example, many activity detection features on your device use the gyroscope to find your activity and then identify if you are jogging or running.
Barometric Pressure Sensor:
Barometric pressure sensors are used to find your altitude with the device. This data is beneficial for activities like hiking and mountain climbing. The altitude data is used along with data computed by the smartwatch to make sense of the conditions and give you essential information. For example, devices may use this sensor to determine if your SpO2 levels are low as you move to higher altitudes.
Heart Rate Monitor:
As you can know by its name, the sensor tracks the number of heartbeats. This sensor also tracks it through your pulse and checks at regular intervals, and in any case, if you face any abnormal heartbeat, then it informs you of the same. The high-end smartwatches tell your emergency contact if the sensor detects something wrong with your heart rate.
Oximetry Sensor:
One essential medical device found in most households during miserable times of the pandemic is pulse oximeters. These sensors track the Oxygen concentration in your blood via your smartwatch.
Skin Conductance Sensor:
This sensor will measure your galvanic skin reaction and any change in your sweat that you may use to figure out how strong your emotions are and how many calories you should have burned during the day.
As the sweat glands change, the galvanic skin reaction sensor may inform when a person’s activity changes. The electrodes in these smartwatches are responsive to these changes and may send these details to the device.
Gesture Sensor:
Smartwatches also have exciting features, such as detecting gestures to control song playback and accept or reject calls. It is possible due to the gesture sensors. Some smartwatches also give the option of adding custom gesture controls, which is also possible using the Gesture sensor.
Final Thought:
Using a smartwatch has become a fashion nowadays. The popularity of smartwatches is seen among young to old. Many companies say that smartwatches may better monitor people’s health. Now we don’t have to worry about little things, and we can track health-related issues ourselves, such as Pulse Rate, Heartbeat Rate, Stress Level, Oxygen Level, and more, at regular intervals.
The smartwatch includes many types of sensors to give real-time information, and all these devices use EMF radiation to connect online. Smartwatches emit radiation, but it is not strong enough to cause significant harm.
Hope that you get an idea of all the features these different sensors provide, and this detail helps you narrow down on what sensors you need in your smartwatch purchase. Just reach Infodeal with a single click to know more about any device. You get more details on smartwatches, smartphones, and the latest products.
About the Author:Suranjana Patar is a Senior Technical Content Writer at InfoDeal. She tries to keep her fingers on the nerves of all tech-related data. She is a keen observer and keeps herself updated on various technical sources. Expertise in writing Technology News, Reviews, Guides, Latest Gadgets, and much more.
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