Comment by dyauspitr
3 days ago
Is there a way to run this on your own data? I’ve been wearing my Apple Watch for years and would love to be able to use it better.
3 days ago
Is there a way to run this on your own data? I’ve been wearing my Apple Watch for years and would love to be able to use it better.
Not yet -- this one is just a research study. Some of their previous research has made it into product features.
For example, Apple Watch VO2Max (cardio fitness) is based on a deep neural network published in 2023: https://www.empirical.health/blog/how-apple-watch-cardio-fit...
Apple's VO2Max measures are not based upon that deep neural network development, and empirical seems to be conflating a few things. And FWIW, just finding the actual paper is almost impossible as that same site has SEO-bombed Google so thoroughly you end up in the circular-reference empirical world where all of their pages reference each other as authorities.
Apple and Columbia did recently collaborate on a heart rate response model -- one which can be downloaded and trialed -- but that was not related to the development of their VO2Max calculations.
Apple is very shrouded about how they calculate VO2Max, but it likely is a pretty simple calculation (e.g. how much is your heart responding based upon the level of activity assumed based upon your motion, method of exercise and movements). The most detail they provide is in https://www.apple.com/healthcare/docs/site/Using_Apple_Watch..., which mostly is a validation that it's providing decent enough accuracy.
What’s your source on Apple not using the neural network for VO2Max estimation? They’ve been using on-device neural networks for various biomarkers for several years now (even for seemingly simple metrics like heart rate).
FWIW, the article above links directly to both the paper and a GitHub repo with PyTorch code.
2 replies →
Apple was reporting VO2max for a very long time (much before 2023). I wonder what the accuracy was back then? Maybe they should the option for users to re-compute those past numbers based on the latest and greatest algorithm.