Cardiio App Uses Your iPhone's Camera to Measure Your Pulse

Cardiio is a new app for the iPhone that measures your pulse using the built-in camera.

Cardiio uses your phone's front camera to analyze the amount of light reflected off of your face; it accurately measures your pulse without any extra hardware. Just hold your phone and look straight into the camera to get your reading, then check out the dashboard to see how it changes over time.

FEATURES
• Touch-free, real-time heart rate measurements
• Beautiful and easy to use interface
• Personal dashboard with history (daily, weekly and monthly)
• Fitness level rating based on your heart rate
• Estimate your potential life expectancy
• See how your heart rate stacks up to others


MAGICAL, BUT NOT A TRICK
Cardiio's technology is based on cutting-edge research and science conducted at the MIT Media Lab. The measurement principles are the same as clinical pulse oximeters. Every time your heart beats, more blood rushes through the vessels in your face, causing them to expand. The increase in blood volume absorbs more light, resulting in a decrease in the amount of light reflected from your face. Using sophisticated software, your iPhone's front camera can track these tiny variations in light that are invisible to the naked eye to calculate your heart rate.

ACCURACY
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., Optics Express 2010, Poh et al., IEEE Trans Biomed Eng 2011).

You can purchase Cardiio from the App Store for $4.99.

Read More