App turns garden-variety smartwatches into highly-capable sleep trackers

While there square measure already fitness trackers and smartwatches that square measure specifically designed to trace the wearer's sleep patterns, a world team of scientists believe that with the correct code, regular smartwatches square measure over up to the work. to it finish, they've created Associate in Nursing app called SleepGuard.

Developed by researchers from the UK's Lancaster University and China's Northwest University, the app utilizes the sensors on regular smartwatches to observe sleep-affecting factors like body movements, close lightweight, and noise.

More specifically, it uses the watch's measuring instrument and gyro to see however usually the user rolls over within the night (lots of rolls square measure a signal of restlessness), that of 4 sleeping postures they are adopting (front, back, side, or on the arm), and that of 3 positions their watch-wearing hand is in.

As way because the latter goes, apparently having the hand on the abdomen will indicate discomfort, putting it on the pinnacle might place pressure on the shoulder nerves and therefore cause arm pain because of restricted blood flow, whereas putt it on the chest may end up in nightmares caused by pressure on the center.

Working with the watch's lightweight sensing element, the app is in a position to inform if the sleeping atmosphere is just too bright, with the mic getting used to sense excessive noise from external sources – the mic is additionally utilised to observe the person's respiratory patterns, and to notice if they are snoring or talking in their sleep.

Once all the information is analyzed, SleepGuard provides users with a sleep report, and suggests causes of (along with solutions for) any issues they'll be having. it's been tested on fifteen people thus far, Associate in Nursingd was found to possess an accuracy almost like that of consumer-grade sleep monitors.

"Our project aims to unlock the complete potential of ready-made client smartwatches, taking advantage of their subtle suite of sensors to achieve a fuller understanding of a wearer's sleep patterns," says Lancaster's Dr. Petteri Nurmi, author of a paper on the study.

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