Diseases such as asthma or COVID-19 make it difficult for the lungs to absorb oxygen. This causes the oxygen saturation percentage to drop to 90% or less, indicating that medical attention is required.

Development of a new application

In a study conducted by the University of Washington and the University of California, San Diego, it was proven that smartphones can determine the oxygen saturation level of the blood up to 70%. This is the lowest value a pulse oximeter should be able to measure, according to U.S. Food and Drug Administration guidelines.

How can a smartphone measure oxygen levels?

In order for the smartphone to measure saturation, you have to put your fingertip on the camera. There, flashing red, green and blue colors will light up alternately. The process will take about 15 minutes.

The camera will record how blood flows through the illuminated part of the finger and absorbs the flash light with each heartbeat. Based on this data, a specially trained artificial intelligence will calculate the oxygen level in the blood.

The technology was tested on six people aged 20-34. With 80% accuracy, the smartphone determined saturation in the 70-100% range, like most pulse oximeters. As the AI ​​is trained on data from more volunteers, the program will become more accurate.

Another advantage of measuring blood oxygen levels with a smartphone is that almost everyone owns a smartphone. Therefore, it will save a lot of people’s money.