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How can it possibly monitor blood glucose without a sample? The people in the comments seem strangely unsurprised. It somehow can see microscopic features in

• rcoveson 6y ago
  They trained an ML model that predicts blood glucose based on age, sex, GPS location, and Apple Pay transactions. Just bought a #3 combo at Taco Bell and arrived at home? Blood glucose spikes 15 minutes later.
  • ortusdux 6y ago
    "We see that your blood glucose is low. You are currently 0.3 miles from a Starbucks(TM)."
• nbar 6y ago
  Maybe Elizabeth Holmes is helping out?
• yuppie_scum 6y ago
  Sweat analysis of some sort
• bjtitus 6y ago
  There has been a fair amount of research and (seeming) success in this area: https://www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com/mit-researchers-develop-light-based-device-to-measure-blood-glucose/ https://www.medicaldesignandoutsourcing.com/mit-researchers-... Not sure how close it is to being out of the lab but it definitely seems doable.
• random42_ 6y ago
  From the linked article: Apple has been revealed to be the largest customer of the British electronics start-up Rockley Photonics, The Telegraph reports. Rockley Photonics has developed non-invasive optical sensors for detecting multiple blood-related health metrics, including blood pressure, blood glucose, and blood alcohol levels, many of which are only normally detectable with more invasive dedicated medical equipment. Rockley's sensors beam infrared light through a user's skin, much like the existing sensors on the back of the Apple Watch for detecting heart rate and blood oxygen levels. Edit: formatting
  • r00fus 6y ago
    This is straight-up tricorder level shit if it pans out. Definitely upgrading from my v4 if that's the case.
  • throwaway5752 6y ago
    It would be very interesting how this would reliably work across a diverse population without some sort of calibration step. I am skeptical, but it is Apple.
  • amelius 6y ago
    This still doesn't explain how it works. Oxygen and heart rate can be done with light, this is well known, but how does it measure glucose and alcohol levels and blood pressure?
    • throwawayboise 6y ago
      If someone is really drunk you can smell the alcohol standing near them. Not sure about glucose but possibly it's detecting chemicals diffusing through the skin or pores?
• _Microft 6y ago
  Blood oxygen levels are also measured optically already. If you can find an optical property of blood (that depends on a particular substance) which can be measured through the skin (infrared light can penetrate skin and flesh to some degree), you can build a sensor for it.
  • ilaksh 6y ago
    Infrared. Got it. Thanks.
    • _Microft 6y ago
      It is called near-infrared spectroscopy ("NIRS") and you can read more about it here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-infrared_spectroscopy https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Near-infrared_spectroscopy
    • Someone 6y ago
      Could be something else. The wikipedia page on this technology (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noninvasive_glucose_monitor https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Noninvasive_glucose_monitor) mentions “bioimpedance spectroscopy, microwave/RF sensing, fluorescence technology, mid-infrared spectroscopy, near infrared spectroscopy, optical coherence tomography, optical polarimetry, raman spectroscopy, reverse iontophoresis, and ultrasound technolog“ That page also claims there isn’t any clinically or commercially viable product yet. That seems out of date to me, given that https://www.labiotech.eu/best-biotech/needle-free-glucose-monitoring-for-diabetes-medtech/ https://www.labiotech.eu/best-biotech/needle-free-glucose-mo... mentions 8 devices you can buy now.
      • FireBeyond 6y ago
        > That page also claims there isn’t any clinically or commercially viable product yet. That seems out of date to me, given that https://www.labiotech.eu/best-biotech/needle-free-glucose-mo https://www.labiotech.eu/best-biotech/needle-free-glucose-mo... mentions 8 devices you can buy now. "needle free" !- "non-invasive". Several of those devices are implanted subdermally.
• criddell 6y ago
  If they can get blood glucose working through the watch, they are going to sell tens of millions of additional units.
• marc__1 6y ago
  You can check out the claims that Rockley Photonics (Apple sensor supplier for the watch) made in their SPAC presentation or their patents https://rockleyphotonics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Rockley-Photonics-Health-Investor-Presentation-2021-03.pdf https://rockleyphotonics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Rock... https://patents.justia.com/assignee/rockley-photonics-limited https://patents.justia.com/assignee/rockley-photonics-limite...
• deleted 6y ago
  [deleted]
• yazaddaruvala 6y ago
  > Rockley’s optical technology enables the miniaturization of sensing devices necessary for the evolution of a wearable spectrometer [0] If you have a wearable spectrometer (i.e. measure the wavelengths that are reflected), and a variable light source (i.e. control the frequencies sent into the body), you can isolate repeating patterns, even for molecules like glucose: https://youtu.be/xMa1BQ8z9C0?t=541 https://youtu.be/xMa1BQ8z9C0?t=541 I'm still not sure how they can tell the parts per million, etc. Probably through multiple samples over time, or multiple veins. [0] Page 18: https://rockleyphotonics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Rockley-Photonics-Health-Investor-Presentation-2021-03.pdf https://rockleyphotonics.com/wp-content/uploads/2021/03/Rock...