New Cardiio iPhone App Use Camera to Estimate Heart Rate

[Maura]

PC Advisor writes today about an ingenius new app called Cardiio that uses the iPhone’s camera to estimate your heart rate. The app is the work of Ming-Zher Poh, a PhD student at the MIT Media Lab, and uses an algorithm to record a video of your face with the iPhone camera, then distils it into RGB channels, so that the app can then analyse the readings and estimate an approximate BPM heart rate using reflectivity. PC Advisor says that the app is apparently very accurate, with one study at least finding that the technology that is used in the app is accurate to within three beats per minute. And as PC Advisor note, this app probably won’t be used just yet in hospitals or at the doctor’s surgery where accurate readings are vital, but it could well be a handy way to check your heart rate when exercising, and who knows what uses it might have in the future?

Click here to download the app for $4.99: Cardiio - Touchless Camera Pulse Sensor for iPhone 4, iPhone 4S, iPod touch (4th generation), iPad 2 Wi-Fi, iPad 2 Wi-Fi + 3G, iPad (3rd generation) and iPad Wi-Fi + 4G on the iTunes App Store

Source: iPhone App Cardiio Can Tell Your Heart Rate With Nothing But A Video - PC Advisor