Google Pixel 8 Pro users are finding weird ways to use the phone

1 month ago

A personification holding nan Google Pixel 8 Pro successful beforehand of their face.

One of nan astir astonishing additions to Google’s Pixel hardware successful caller years is somesthesia sensing. The Google Pixel 8 Pro comes equipped pinch a somesthesia sensor that tin measurement nan somesthesia of objects simply by “scanning” them from an optimum region wrong nan five-centimeter range. Google says nan sensor is bully for “beverages, cooking pan, h2o temperature, and more.”

The smartphone community, however, is seemingly hell-bent connected relegating it to gimmick status. But mean Pixel 8 Pro owners are uncovering cool ways to usage it. As elaborate successful this Reddit post, 1 Pixel 8 Pro personification was stuck successful a stormy business that took retired nan powerfulness proviso for 36 hours, putting them successful a quandary regarding nan position of nutrient items kept successful an out-of-power refrigerator.

“Using it, I could easy place nutrient items that were nearing their pouring point, allowing maine to make informed decisions astir what to discard and what to keep,” sounds nan post. Another personification mentioned successful nan comments conception that readings from nan Pixel 8 Pro’s onboard sensor were “within a degree” compared to an infrared thermometer erstwhile measuring a pan’s power and nan business wrong a refrigerator.

The Google Pixel 8 Pro pinch its Thermometer app open.

“I utilized excavation to corroborate nan temp of nan boiler for my HVAC system. It was connected nan nose,” notes different personification successful nan reply segment. A abstracted Reddit post describes really a Pixel 8 Pro personification deployed nan sensor to cheque really basking nan sidewalk was earlier taking their pet for a walk.

The charismatic Thermometer app that Google has released for nan Pixel 8 Pro mentions that nan sensor is bully capable for a somesthesia scope of -5 degrees Fahrenheit and 302 degrees Fahrenheit. However, nan app warns that nan accuracy mightiness alteration based connected nan size of nan entity and really adjacent nan somesthesia readings are compared to nan sensor’s precocious and little limits.

Before you tin measurement nan somesthesia values, nan app lets you prime from 10 categories that see nutrient and organic, beverages and water, cast-iron, glass, matte metal, shiny metal, and fabric, among others. There’s a clear favoritism betwixt shiny and matte surfaces since they radiate power to different degrees, and nan sensor readings person to beryllium appropriately adjusted.

The somesthesia sensor connected nan Google Pixel 8 Pro.

In my ain little tests successful a room pinch nan somesthesia group astatine 23 degrees Centigrade, nan sensor’s reference mostly varied by 1 to 3 degrees erstwhile compared to readings taken pinch a thermal weapon connected family items specified arsenic ceramic cups, bags, PC monitors, solid windows, array surfaces, and charging adapters, among others. Similar was nan lawsuit erstwhile measuring a person’s tegument somesthesia by pointing nan Pixel 8 Pro’s somesthesia sensor astatine nan forehead.

Those are not bad figures by immoderate agelong of nan imagination. But do support successful mind that nan sensor is yet to beryllium approved by nan Food and Drug Administration (FDA) successful nan U.S., which intends it is not advisable to usage Google’s flagship for tegument somesthesia measurement.

I precocious interviewed experts astatine nan University of Washington’s Paul G. Allen School of Computer Science and Engineering astir an app that tin “reliably measurement assemblage somesthesia and observe fever symptoms” utilizing nan onboard sensors fitted wrong astir smartphones. The research is rather fascinating.

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Nadeem Sarwar

Nadeem is simply a tech journalist who started reference astir cool smartphone tech retired of curiosity and soon started writing…

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A personification holding nan Google Pixel 8, showing nan backmost of nan phone.

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