How Google Will Help You Lose Weight Using Your Phone Camera
How many times have you tried to check your body composition using a smart scale or a watch that runs a mild electric current through your body? These home methods are convenient, but they are not always accurate enough. Now, Google is developing a surprising solution that will allow you to do this with extremely high precision, without any special equipment — simply by using your phone's camera and an advanced artificial intelligence tool.
How many times have you tried to check your body composition using a smart scale or a watch that runs a mild electric current through your body? These home methods are convenient, but they are not always accurate enough. Now, Google is developing a surprising solution that will allow you to do this with extremely high precision, without any special equipment — simply by using your phone's camera and an advanced artificial intelligence (AI) tool.
How will your camera measure fat?
Meet PhotoScan, a new research tool from Google based on AI. The system was trained by comparing regular smartphone photos with medical DXA scans that use X-rays. The promising result shows extremely high accuracy, allowing for the estimation of body fat percentage and body composition at a level very close to professional medical scanning, and provides an effective tool for predicting insulin resistance.
The new development connects to Google's broad efforts in the field of digital health. Just recently, with the launch of the Pixel Watch 5, the company introduced the "Insulin Resistance Trends" feature. This feature analyzes how the body reacts to spikes in blood sugar levels, a critical metric for weight management and preventing type 2 diabetes. Since body composition directly affects these metrics, accurate scanning is critical.
Are smartwatches in danger?
Today, devices like Samsung's Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 use BIA sensors that send a weak electric current through the body to estimate fat and muscle percentages. Google researchers explain that while these sensors are limited to basic data only, and medical scans are not accessible to the general public, the PhotoScan method offers a perfect combination: the convenience of a smartphone alongside near-medical accuracy.
Although the technology is still in the research stages and is not available to the general public, the researchers have already proven its feasibility. In the not-too-distant future, it is very likely that we will see this capability arrive directly on Google's Pixel devices, and it will completely change the way we track our health.
