Philips Can Measure Your Breathing & Heart Rate Using Only Your iPad’s Camera

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Vital-Signs-Camera-for-iPad

Philips has released a new iOS app for the iPad 2 that allows you to measure both your heart rate and breaking rate using only your device’s camera. Unlike similar apps that require additional accessories, this one claims to get its results from “the color of your face” and “the motion of your chest.”

The app is called Vital Signs Camera, and it’s available from the App Store now for just $0.99. Its creators have labeled it an “amazing innovation,” and we’re inclined to agree. I mean, it’s pretty astonishing that the app uses nothing but your iPad’s crappy front-facing camera to get its results.

The Vital Signs Camera App of Philips measures your heart rate and breathing rate using advanced software and the camera of your iPad 2. This breakthrough technology allows you to measure your vital signs in an easy and unobtrusive way at home*.

All you have to do is sit in front of your device and try to keep still while the app checks out the color of your face to measure your heart rate, and analyzes the motion of your chest to measure your breathing rate. You can then share your results online with friends on Facebook and Twitter, or via email.

This makes it easy to alert your doctor when you think you might be on your last legs, though Philips does state the app ” is not intended for diagnosis or for clinical measurements, monitoring or decision making.”

For those of you who are skeptical of the app’s abilities, take note of the five-star ratings it’s currently getting in the App Store, and check out what Wired has to say about it:

Incredibly, it actually seems to work.

I downloaded the app and tried it out. You need to sit still in a well-lit area and make sure your face and chest are in the correct parts of the screen (there are colored rectangular guides to help). That’s it. The default settings stop when a measurement has been determined, and you can just read them or inflict them on your friends via Facebook or Twitter.

Have you tried Vital Signs Camera yet?

[via AppAdvice]

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