Alphabet’s Verily shows off health-focused smartwatch

Enlarge / The Verily Study Watch, strategically photographed to not show how thick it is. (credit: Verily)

Alphabet's Life Sciences division, called Verily, is giving the world a peek at its health-focused smartwatch. The Google sister company introduced the "Verily Study Watch" on its blog today, calling it an "investigational device" that aims to "passively capture health data" for medical studies.

Many wearables technically capture health data with simple heart-rate sensors, but Verily's watch aims to be a real medical device. The blog post says the device can track "relevant signals for studies spanning cardiovascular, movement disorders, and other areas." The Study Watch does this by using electrocardiography (ECG) and by measuring electrodermal activity and inertial movements.

The ECG is the biggest addition to the watch over a normal smartwatch device. According to a report from MIT Technology Review, which has been tracking the Verily watch's progress for some time, the watch uses a two-point ECG. One contact point is the watch on the wrist, and the other point is formed when the user touches the metal bezel of the watch with their other hand.

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