Monthly Archive for November, 2011

Today, there are more than 10,000 consumer health apps available for smartphone users (and that number is expected to grow exponentially over the next several years). These apps fall into categories such as diet and nutrition, calculators, chronic disease management, and relaxation and inspiration.

Here in iQ, we decided to do some shopping around the App Store to find some apps that have big promises and impressive displays of functionality. Our first download was the free version of Instant Heart Rate by Azumio.

From InstantHeartRate.com:

Instant Heart Rate is the most accurate heart rate monitor app for iPhone and it does not need any external hardware. Independently tested by nurses, MDs, EMTs, and fitness coaches.

• Easy to use: takes less than 10 seconds from opening the app to getting a reading.
• Place your finger gently over the camera. Hold it steady for at least 10 seconds. Your current heart rate will be shown on the display.
• It works by tracking color changes in the light that passes through your finger.
• This app constantly evolves and in process improves on ease of use and adds new features.

This app is available for both iPhone and Android devices. With over 4M downloads and more than 40k five-star reviews.

Taking an accurate heart rate reading in 10 seconds using only the iPhone camera and flash seemed intriguing, so we decided to test it out here in the Lab.

Our findings:

• The app was extremely accurate on several trials. In the trial shown in the video, it was within 1 BPM
• The functionality was a bit touchy as it was sometimes difficult for the app to pick up a reading from the subject’s finger – thus taking longer than 10 seconds to display the heart rate
• Once the app did lock into the subject’s heart rate, it did display a reading within 10 seconds

iQ’s Senior Digital Engineer, Chia-Hao Chang, recently began working with the Asus EP 121 Pad, featuring the Windows 8 Developer Preview, and shares his experience and thoughts below:

Have you had an opportunity to play with Windows 8 DP yet? How has your experience been thus far?