If you’ve been following all the camera apps that we’ve featured here in TogTech, then by now you already know what the CarSafe app can do for your car, or how the TIPIC app measures the temperature in your home. And to further add another one to the growing list of useful camera apps, we’ll cover a new app called Cardiio.
Cardiio is an iPhone app that allows users to measure a body’s heart rate by simply looking at the phone’s camera. The technology used by the app is based on a research conducted by some brilliant folks at the MIT Media Lab.
Studies have shown that our heart rate measurements are within 3 bpm of a clinical pulse oximeter when performed at rest in a well-lit environment (Poh et al., Opt. Express 2010; Poh et al., IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2011).
Every time your heart beats, more blood is pumped into your face. This slight increase in blood volume causes more light to be absorbed, and hence less light is reflected from your face. Using sophisticated software, your iPhone’s front camera can track these tiny changes in reflected light that are not visible to the human eye and calculate your heart beat!
Aside from sensing your pulse-rate, the app also features a dashboard that shows a graphic visualization of all your data. It also gives insight on your fitness level, life expectancy, and how your heart rate stacks up with the rest of the United States or some other person.
Cardiio, Inc. describes their app as “an accurate, touch-free heart rate monitor.” This is indeed good news to all those people who are always looking out for their heart’s health status. If you’re one those people, you can download the Cardiio app for around $3.00 on Apple’s App Store.
[Yahoo! via Cardiio]