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Celine Low chevron_right
A recent study, published in the Journal of Psychopathology and Clinical Science, claims that smartwatches show limited ability to actually communicate what a person's psychological state is.
Sometimes, a watch may think the user is stressed even though they're really just excited about something, researchers say.
In the study conducted in Leiden University, about 800 students wore a Garmin Vivosmart 4 smartwatch and were asked to self-report their emotional states. These reports were then compared against the metrics collected by the wearables.
What the students self-reported and the analyses provided by the watches were different to say the least. Or as the author Eiko Fried puts it, "basically zero".
“This is no surprise to us given that the watch measures heart rate and heart rate doesn’t have that much to do with the emotion you’re experiencing – it also goes up for sexual arousal or joyful experiences,” he was quoted saying in The Guardian.
He noted that his Garmin had previously told him he was stressed when he was working out in the gym and when excitedly talking to a friend he had not seen for a while at a wedding.
Garmin advertises a stress-tracking capability for its smartwatches on its website, stating that "stress levels are estimated by the Firstbeat Analytics engine, primarily using a combination of HR and HRV data."
However, Garmin seems to admit that the quality and character of stress can be difficult to measure:
"Public speaking and running up a flight of stairs can both send your heart racing, but the underlying reasons why are fundamentally different."
However, recorded fatigue levels had a very slight association with the smartwatch data, while sleep had a stronger correlation.
“The findings raise important questions about what wearable data can or can’t tell us about mental states,” said Fried. “Be careful and don’t live by your smartwatch — these are consumer devices, not medical devices.”
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