Sorry, Samsung Google says its latest AI smartphone camera tool can measure bodies better than the Galaxy Watch's bioelectric sensors

Date:
Wed, 19 Aug 2026 03:30:00 +0000

Description:
In the midst of a health wearables arms race, Google's been quietly
developing health scanning tools for your smartphone's camera instead.

FULL STORY ======================================================================Copy link Facebook X Whatsapp Reddit Pinterest Flipboard Threads Email Share this article 0 Join the conversation Follow us Add us as a preferred source on Google Newsletter Subscribe to our newsletter Google is building on its new Insulin Resistance Trends health feature with PhotoScan PhotoScan is 'an investigational deep learning framework' that can estimate body fat using a phone's camera with 'near DXA accuracy' It's not yet available to the public, but the research 'demonstrate[s] the feasibility' of such features As the Google Pixel Watch 5 launched last week alongside a slew of new Pixel phones, one of the most interesting new developments was the introduction of the
Pixel Watch's new Health Guardian suite of tools, including Insulin
Resistance Trends .

Insulin Resistance Trends showcases a month-by-month breakdown containing estimations of how your body responded to blood sugar spikes a crucial component in weight management and the development of Type-2 diabetes. Body composition your ratio of different kinds of fat, skeletal muscle, and bone is also an excellent marker of insulin resistance and metabolic health, so body scans are often used to help determine insulin resistance. Body comp is often measured with medical-grade 'DXA' scans, which use X-Rays, or commercially available devices at home. Latest Videos From TechRadar Watch full video here:

These home devices can be the best smart scales or even some smartwatches, such as the Samsung Galaxy Watch Ultra 2 . Without medical DXA scanners, they usually use a process called 'bioelectrical impedence analysis', or BIA. A low-level electric current is sent through the user's body, moving through fat, muscle, and bone at different speeds. The speed of the electrical
current helps the device estimate the percentages of each material in the body: a useful thing to have on a health-monitoring device like a smartwatch. (Image credit: Google) However, Google is busy researching an even more accurate version of a body scan without using any specialist equipment or BIA kit in fact, it's just a smartphone camera and an onboard AI model. This in-development feature is called PhotoScan, appropriately. You may like The Google Pixel Watch 5's Insulin Resistance Trends feature is a very big deal Google Health has left Fitbit users incensed at its workout hallucinations Samsung Galaxy Watch users are getting a completely redesigned, AI-first app for a 'personalized experience'

According to its research blog , Google has been developing PhotoScan by matching smartphone photographs of subjects with medical-grade DXA scans, along with other subject information, then running it all through an AI
model. The AI model eventually achieved 'strong DXA agreement' when
estimating body fat percentage and other metrics, leading to 'near-DXA accuracy for predicting insulin resistance'.

The researchers conclude that 'clinical DXA imaging delivers the most
accurate body composition but lacks scalability, whereas wearable BIA sensors offer convenience but are limited to basic body fat percentage. Get daily insight, inspiration and deals in your inbox Sign up for breaking news, reviews, opinion, top tech deals, and more. Contact me with news and offers from other Future brands Receive email from us on behalf of our trusted partners or sponsors By submitting your information you agree to the Terms & Conditions and Privacy Policy and are aged 16 or over.

'Our PhotoScan approach offers a promising middle ground, estimating granular body composition from standard smartphone imagery with near-DXA accuracy.' Sorry, Samsung it looks like we'll be pivoting away from BIA sensors and towards smartphone cameras for body fat percentage calculation in future.

While the technology doesn't seem to be commercially available yet, it does 'demonstrate the feasibility of smartphone-based body composition
estimation,' and I'd be surprised not to see it make its way to the best
Pixel phones eventually. Follow TechRadar on Google News and add us as a preferred source to get our expert news, reviews, and opinion in your feeds. 879 at very.co.uk (256GB) 1,079 at very.co.uk (256GB) 1,079 at Mobiles.co.uk (256GB) 1,429 at Amazon (1TB)



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Link to news story: https://www.techradar.com/health-fitness/sorry-samsung-google-says-its-latest- ai-smartphone-camera-tool-can-measure-bodies-better-than-the-galaxy-watchs-bio electric-sensors


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