Tag Archives: rate

Technology

Google Fit measures heart, respiratory rate w/ phone camera

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Google Health encompasses the various teams at Google working on helping people “live their healthiest life.” The latest effort lets you measure your heart and respiratory rate using the Google Fit app and cameras on an Android phone.

To measure the number of breaths you take per minute, Google Fit is using your Android device’s front-facing camera. The phone needs to be leaned on a “stable surface so that you can comfortably see yourself from the waist up.” It needs to have a clear, unobstructed view of your head and upper torso.  

Users are then taken to a fullscreen UI with a live feed marking your face and chest, while instructions above tell you to breathe normally and “Hold still” as a circular indicator notes progress. Once complete, “Your results” appear on the next screen, with the recently revamped Google Fit Home feed featuring a new card that shows average RPM over the course of the past week. A ‘plus’ button in the top-right corner lets you start another session. 

Google is measuring your respiratory rate by detecting small changes on your chest. The company touts advances in computer vision that make it possible to “track tiny physical signals at the pixel level.”

Meanwhile, measuring heart rate involves placing your finger on the rear-facing camera lens and applying light pressure. Flash is not needed, but it can be enabled to increase accuracy in dark environments. Once complete, users have to manually decide whether to save the vitals to Fit. Both these measurements take 30 seconds, with users advised to wait a few minutes after doing anything active. Neither requires an internet connection to work.

Google is tracking the “subtle changes in the color of your fingers” to approximate blood flow. The heart rate algorithms account for lighting, skin tone, age, and other factors. The Fit app explicitly tells users that:

“These results are not intended for medical purposes and should not be used to diagnose, treat, cure, or prevent any disease or medical condition.”

That said, Google imagines Fit’s camera-backed measurements as a useful way to “track and improve day-to-day wellness.” The company has completed initial clinical studies to validate these features. It will start rolling out next month to Pixel owners that have the Fit app installed. Google plans to bring these capabilities to other Android devices in the future.

The announcement comes ahead of a Google Health event — appropriately named “The Checkup” — that starts in an hour. This Google Fit camera measuring feature is one of the group’s most significant consumer-facing developments after the launch of the Google Health Studies app late last year.

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Business

Goldman says the stock market is undergoing its biggest short squeeze in 25 years – and that has hedge funds dumping stock exposure at the fastest rate since 2009

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Xinhua News Agency/Getty Images

  • The US stock market has seen its biggest short squeeze in 25 years over a trailing three-month period, according to Goldman Sachs.
  • The culmination of this came this past week, when hedge funds withdrew from the market at the fastest rate since 2009, the firm said.
  • Day traders have driven up shares GameStop and other heavily shorted stocks in recent weeks, costing short-sellers billions.
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The US stock market has experienced its biggest short squeeze in 25 years over the past three months, according to Goldman Sachs.

It all came to a head this past week amid the GameStop madness that forced hedge funds to dump stock holdings at the fastest rate since 2009, the firm found.

GameStop shares spiked 400% just last week – and 1,625% across all of January – squeezing hedge funds and others who had bet against the stock, costing them billions of dollars. A short position is a bet that a share price will fall. Estimates by data provider Ortex on Friday showed that short-sellers were sitting on losses of around $19 billion just on GameStop in 2021 so far.

The surge in GameStop and other heavily shorted stocks was driven by users of the Reddit forum Wall Street Bets, who forced up the price in an effort to make themselves money but also to hammer hedge funds such as Melvin Capital. They had to buy shares in companies such as GameStop and movie theater chain AMC to close their short positions, and sell other stocks to cover their losses.

Read more: Buy these 26 heavily shorted stocks as retail traders trigger wild rallies in Wall Street’s least-liked names, Wells Fargo says

The activity was the culmination of a three-month span that saw basket of the most-shorted US stocks rally 98%, far outpacing similarly aggressive squeezes seen in 2000 and 2009. 

“Funds in their coverage sold long positions and covered shorts in every sector,” said David Kostin, Goldman’s chief US equity strategiest.

Kostin and his colleagues said regulations, limits put in place by trading platforms, or sharp losses could bring the amateur trading frenzy to a halt.

“Otherwise, an abundance of US household cash should continue to fuel the trading boom,” they said.

Goldman said retail investing was thriving because of the large amount of savings built up during the coronavirus period, as well as government stimulus.

“During 2020 credit card debt declined by more than 10%, checking deposits grew by $4 trillion, and savings grew by $5 trillion,” the investment bank’s analysts said.

“On top of these savings, our economists expect more than $1 trillion in additional fiscal support in coming months, including another round of direct checks.”

Read more: Jefferies says these 20 heavily shorted and lightly traded stocks could see big jumps in the event of a GameStop-like squeeze

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Technology

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury Frame Rate And Resolution Detailed

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© Nintendo

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser’s Fury is the first major Nintendo Switch release of the year and it’s arriving on 12th February.

While we’ve already heard how 3D World will run much faster compared to the original Wii U release, it seems a number of outlets have now shared information about the frame rate and resolution players can expect across both games.

Here’s the round-up, courtesy of Nintendo Everything. It’s worth pointing out that the resolution of Bowser’s Fury in docked mode may possibly be higher than 720p (the source doesn’t clarify docked and handheld differences).

Super Mario 3D World

– 1080p, 60fps (docked)

– 720p, 60fps (portable)

Bowser’s Fury

– 720p, 60fps (docked)

– 720p, 30fps (portable)

For the sake of comparison, the original 3D World game on Wii U was 720p, 60fps.

While the above details are enough to get an idea of how this upcoming Switch release will perform, once again – the resolution of Bowser’s Fury in docked mode isn’t fully confirmed just yet. If it was a bit higher though, it would be more than welcome.

What do you think of the above information? Tell us down below.



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Health

Though daily positive rate climbs back over 20%, weeklong numbers reflect some good trends

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Health officials report 1,516 new cases and 13 more deaths, though four of those occurred in 2020.

(Rick Egan | The Salt Lake Tribune) XpresCheck, a Covid-19 testing site, is now testing passengers at the Salt Lake City International Airport on Wednesday, Jan. 20, 2021.

  | Jan. 24, 2021, 8:27 p.m.

| Updated: 9:41 p.m.

Editor’s note: The Salt Lake Tribune is providing free access to critical stories about the coronavirus. Sign up for our Top Stories newsletter, sent to your inbox every weekday morning. To support journalism like this, please donate or become a subscriber.

While the percentage of positive COVID-19 tests in Utah went up Sunday from the day before, a look at the figures from the past week suggest some reason for cautious optimism.

For instance, the rolling seven-day average of new cases reported Sunday by the Utah Department of Health was 1,794. A week ago, it was 2,548.

The number of people hospitalized Sunday due to COVID-19 was at 461. The week prior, it was 557. The number of coronavirus patients occupying ICU beds was down by more than 40, and the percentage of ICU beds occupied declined from 97.4% to 88.7%.

Meanwhile, the rolling seven-day percentage of positive tests is also down from the previous week. On Sunday, it stood at 19.4%. The week before, it was at 22.6%.

It’s not all good news, however — there were still 102 coronavirus-related deaths in Utah over the past seven days.

Meanwhile, Johns Hopkins University’s Coronavirus Resource Center reports that we are approaching 100 million global cases of COVID-19. More than 25 million of those have been in the United States alone. There are now more than 2,125,000 deaths worldwide — led by more than 418,000 in the United States.

Here’s a closer look at the Sunday numbers released by the UDOH:

Vaccinations reported in past day/total vaccinations • 6,073 / 228,348.

Cases reported in past day • 1,516, which is 255 fewer than Saturday.

Deaths reported in past day • 13, though UDOH noted that four of them occurred prior to Dec. 31, 2020.

Five of them were Utah County residents: A male between 25-44 years old, three males between 65-84, and a female 85 or older.

Four came from Salt Lake County: A male between 45-64, one male and one female 65-84, and one male older than 85.

Washington County’s two were both female, one of them between 65-84, the other 85 or older. Weber County also had a female between 65-84, while Uintah County had a male between 65-84.

Hospitalizations reported in past day • 461. That’s down 20 from Saturday’s numbers. Of those currently hospitalized, 182 are in intensive care units — 14 fewer than announced Saturday.

Tests reported in past day • 7,331.

Percentage of positive tests • 20.7%. This is higher than the seven-day average of 19.4%.

Totals to date • 336,405 cases; 1,595 deaths; 13,016 hospitalizations; 1,965,485 tests.

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