The US defense agency has reportedly spent the past two years developing the “predictive bio-wearables” technology which could be worn as a wristwatch or as a ring.
Late last month the Pentagon’s Defense Innovation Unit awarded a contract to Philips Healthcare with whom it has been collaborating on the project alongside Texas A&M and the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency.
The researchers have been using Garmin watches — the Fenix 6 and Vivoactive 4 — and Oura rings in tests with more than 11,000 test patients since June 2020. The wearables technology measures respiration rate, oxygen saturation and heart rate with the watch and heart rate and skin temperature with the ring.
The team created an algorithm that uses the vital signs data to predicts whether a user has Covid-19 two days before they are showing symptoms. According to preliminary results published last August the technology showed a projected accuracy of about 82 percent, with a false positive rate of 11 percent over a 14-day period.
“These things that this algorithm is sensing are imperceptible. You wake up the next morning and see your score jump to a 20, but you feel fine,” Jeff Schneider, DIU rapid analysis threat exposure program manager, told Politico.
Schneider told Politico that during the research phase, the technology was used by the US military as a supplemental tool in coronavirus detection. Out of the nearly 10,000 wearers of the device there were 491 Covid-positive cases detected.
“We were able to prevent the spread. While we’re in research that’s very unique,” Schneider said.