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Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

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Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#582
post #543

Earlier quoted context omitted.

You don’t get to take the “no effect” over the “small effect” just because you’re an atheist. That is precisely what taking faith over data looks like!

extraordinary claims require extraordinary evidence. A magical, invisible, omnipresent, omnipotent "all known laws of nature defying"-being that answers prayers, requires significantly more evidence than a small effect in some meta study.

Absolutely. My point is that "I'm an atheist so I'll take the option that agrees with my personal beliefs" isn't a valid line of reasoning. You could symmetrically argue "I'm a catholic so I'll take the option that suggests there is an effect, albeit a small one". Now we're just arguing whose personal beliefs are right.

A more properly scientific line of reasoning would be to instead say that you'll assume the small-to-nonexistent effect is nonexistent until somebody produces a model capable of predicting the proposed small effect, or a myriad other arguments along the same general lines.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#583
post #98

Earlier quoted context omitted.

So it watches your bloodpressure or something? I figured it was the jerking-around. Maybe it looked to the watch like she had fallen down.

It watches the heartbeat, probably arrhythmias specifically. You can't monitor blood pressure with just a watch. You need a blood pressure cuff for that.

The Apple watch can look at blood oxygen levels too which might have been what triggered the alert.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#585
post #485

I bet this is a great feature (and I do have an Apple Watch), but can we please hold for a sec here? This piece reads like an Ad. Furthermore, many comments here are about "I want to see my kids grow up". Now please, calculate the odds of: - you are in a terrible accident - there is no one around you to call an ambulance - you can’t call an ambulance yourself, because you are knocked out or can’t move I think the odd…

It's not only about the odds, but the expected return. That's the whole point of insurance, for instance. Having an accident under these circumstances is quite improbable, but in case it happened, the return would be massive. Actually, since it might be a matter of life or death, perhaps it doesn't even make sense to think about the expected utility, because it would be infinite.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#586
One nice thing about GMs "On Star" is it will call for help automatically if there's been an airbag deploy. I was very surprised that other car manufacturers didn't start doing the same thing when GM did (they've had this feature for at least 15 years) given how cheap cell phone technology is and how the sensors to deploy airbags are reliable and in every car.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#587
post #488

Earlier quoted context omitted.

> I think the odds for such an event are rather low. And I guess you are writing just to the young users. There are a lot of old people living alone (in the part of the world where such watches are affordable). Falling, even in their own house, then remaining immobile and unable to call for help is a common cause of huge problems (1) (2). The specialized devices already exist too, but a lot of people don't carry them…

> Falling, even in their own house, then remaining immobile and unable to call for help is a common cause of huge problems That's been a solved problem for years though. As your link points out, LifeAlert bracelets (and similar technologies) have had fall detection for quite some time now. The new thing that Apple (and Garmin) have brought to the table is pairing that will a cell radio. Given the other benefits of a…

My proud father would not even consider life alert even though he has fallen several times already with nobody home.

Loves the Apple Watch I bought him as a gift though.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#588

I'd love to get my Mom and Apple Watch but getting her to switch to iPhone is probably a bridge too far. How come no Android watches have this functionality?

Some Garmin watches have this feature and work with Android.

I've been looking at the Garmin watches. I just wish they had a model between the vivosmart and the higher end watches that have Pulse Ox. I kind of hate Fitbit now with that they did with the Charge 3's pulse ox hardware being completely useless and Garmin seems nice but the vivosmart is kind of crappy compared to other fitness bands.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#589
post #485

I bet this is a great feature (and I do have an Apple Watch), but can we please hold for a sec here? This piece reads like an Ad. Furthermore, many comments here are about "I want to see my kids grow up". Now please, calculate the odds of: - you are in a terrible accident - there is no one around you to call an ambulance - you can’t call an ambulance yourself, because you are knocked out or can’t move I think the odd…

I had a friend killed in a hit and run, she was found nearly a week later by family members searching possible ways she could have used to walk home from work, had she had something like this (and it had not been destroyed) they could have had closure much faster. My mother's father, while still alive, rapidly deteriorated mentally and was in two accidents by himself in somewhat remote areas and also went to drive to…

>Now I wonder if you can go "hey Google, call 911" to a Google home.

Unfortunately not. It would be a nice feature to have.

Re: Bike crash left Spokane man unconscious, so his Apple Watch called 911

#590

This is a simple obvious addon that every connected portable device could implement. When I bought my fist and last smartphone (Android 2 at that time) after noticing it had an accelerometer on board I immediately thought of an app that could detect a fall when going at some speed, then start beeping for like say 10 seconds and in case the user didn't stop it (as in signaling "I'm ok") it would call emergency numbers…

This really wouldn't work for phones. The accelerometer needs to be very high precision, which is why it only works on very recent Apple Watch models. The accelerometer also needs to be running all the time, even while the main processor on the device is sleeping. Also you need a reliable way to detect that the device is firmly attached to a human; it's not acceptable to call 911 when a phone falls on its own.
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