Last Updated on May 19, 2022 by pg@petergamma.org
The picture shows a subject wearing a Fenix 6 for practicing breath meditation. The Fenix 6 is part of the laboratory equipement of our institute. In this experiment, we will use the Fenix 6 for temperature measurements. It is the first time whe use the device for this purpose.
The goal of the experiment is to study how practicing breath meditation will affect the body temperature.
What happens when the breath rate reaches unphysiological values of down to 3 breath per minutes?
Sadguru, enlightened Yogi from Misore in India predicts that «you will percieve higher things» when you reach these values:
Will the subject unter investigation go through a near death experience under these extreme conditions, and will also his body temperature drop dramatically?
The meditative experiment starts, but no changes in the temperature values on the Garmin watch of the subject can be seen. The temperature remains at a value of 30.7 °C.
Normal physiological body temperature is between 36,5°C an 37,4°C:
What is wrong? Is the Garmin internal temperature sensor not well calibrated?
There are some information available for the Garmin Tempe Sensor: To maintain accuracy, the barometric altimeter is required and temperature has to be recalibrated every 10 minutes in order to remain accurate with changing air pressure.
Is it the same for the Fenix 6 internal temperature sensor? Switching on the barometric altimeter did not change anything on the temperture values on the watch.
The lead scientist of our lab was desperate. Finally, he found the information from Garmin, what to do when the temperature reading is not accurate:
«Your body temperature affects the temperature reading for the internal temperature sensor. To get the most accurate temperature reading, you should remove the watch from your wrist and wait 20 to 30 minutes.»
So there is a correlation between body temperature and reading for the internal temperature sensor of the Fenix 6, but these data are useless for our experiments. The Garmin internal temperature sensor measures ambient temperature from inside the housing of the Fenix 6.
To get at least the ambient temperature correctly, whe had to go through these steps:
1. Remove the watch from your wrist and wait 20 to 30 minutes
2. Read the ambient temperature value shown on the watch
3. Remount the watch to your wrist
4. For the next ambient temperature measurement, restart at step 1.
This procedure let us doubt about the value of the Garmin internal temperature sensor for scientific experiments and also for daily use.
We suggest that Garmin makes out of this sensor a real body temperature measurement device in future watches, which allows continous measurement of the body temperature, and replaces the old sensor.