Now, Fitbit seems to have taken the danger seriously, because the latest patent, filed by the company back in 2020 and published today, describes a fitness tracker, aimed to deal with your everyday stress.
The device in question will be able to passively monitor your stress level throughout the day, and not only warn you about any peaks in anxiety but also suggest ways to calm yourself down.
A wearable computing device, comprising: a display screen; one or more sensors; at least one processor; and memory including instructions that, when executed by the at least one processor, cause the at least one processor to: receive, from one or more sensors on the wearable computing device, data indicative of an arousal event; classify the data indicative of the arousal event into a plurality of bins, the plurality of bins corresponding to periods of time; determine at least one bin of the plurality of bins exceeds a threshold; and in response to the at least one bin exceeding the threshold, provide, via the display screen, a notification to a user identifying the arousal event.
Fitbit will use the electrodermal activity (EDA) to determine whether you’re stressed. The latest Fitbit trackers, such as the Fitbit Sense, and the Fitbit Charge 5, sport EDA sensors onboard, mainly used for tracking the conductivity of your skin (and estimate things such as percentage of body fat, muscle, etc.)
Now, in the new patent, Fitbit describes a way to use EDA sensors to track stress – simply put, the more you sweat, the more conductive your skin will become, and the EDA sensor will pick it up. When combined with the data from the heart rate sensor, the information from the EDA could potentially detect high stress levels (if the sweating is accompanied by irregular heartbeat or specific heart rate patterns).
Of course, such systems are far from perfect – if you exercise on a regular basis you’ll inevitably sweat and your heart rate will vary greatly. Hopefully, Fitbit will develop algorithms that will filter such false positives.
As for what kinds of solutions to your stress problems would this new device suggest, there’s nothing new or groundbreaking. These would probably include breathing exercises, meditation, and reminders to take a break and go for a walk.
