Smart phones are powerful electronic devices that have become an iconic part of American culture. It is hard to find many people without one, which is why companies and entrepreneurs alike are jumping into the mobile app market. They have found innovative ways to turn smartphones into an all-in-one electronic device and that includes creating apps for cardiac event monitoring and medical purposes. One of the apps they have developed is a heart rate monitor.
How Exactly Does the App Work? The heart rate monitors in question are set apart from the ones that simply ask you to count how many heartbeats you can detect per minute. Using the flash and camera features on the smartphone, the app can actually read your heartbeat. Every time your heart beats, it sends a pulse of blood throughout the body. This pulse causes the capillaries in your skin to expand and cause the color of the skin to change slightly. When the flash illuminates the skin the camera it is able to detect these changes, and the app takes the information in the series of images to determine the user’s heart rate.
What is the Advantage of This? Being able to know your heart rate at any time has several advantages. Knowing your heart rate can alert you to potential heart problems if it is beating faster or slower at a time that does not call for it. Athletes can also use their heart rate to determine if they are at their peak pace to maximize the benefit of their workouts.
What’s Next? This is just the beginning. Currently this method of heart monitoring is inconvenient compared to heart rate monitoring specific devices because it requires you to sit still for a moment to let the camera take the photos. You cannot monitor the activity of your heart while you are performing specific activities to see how it works under stress.
However, new heart monitors prescribed by doctors can connect to their own smartphones through a special app so doctors can monitor their patients’ activities while they wear the cardiac event monitor. To learn more about these monitors and the future of heart monitors, browse the ReactDx Inc. blog today.
