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Fastcompany.com has an interesting piece about a an iPhone app that was created to monitor your heart rate, and then broadcast it to the social network of your choice! The concept fits within the wider area of ‘body computing’, which apparently is about using technology to monitor physical health.
You apparently need to get a patch first that you wear on your chest – this contains the necessary circuitry to sense and broadcast the information to the iPhone, where it’s read in to the App. From there it’s a question of choosing how you want to share that information.
This stuff does exist mind you – the App was created for the third Body Computing Conference, and there is medical device company called Corventis that supplied the patch.
All very cool of course, and a new kind of auto-tweeting perhaps: ‘my heart rate is …..!”
But I wonder if the likes of Nike and Polar are watching and thinking they’d like that slice of the market – unlike this proof of concept, Nike has already done plenty of integration with Apple with its Nike+ product – and Polar are recognised as being the leaders in ECG-accurate heart rate monitors – so how long before they come to market with something that does exactly this?
Well I don’t mind either way – I think the concept in and of itself is a neat one, and certainly those professional sportsmen/women, this might be an interesting way to engage with their fans for example.
[Via: fastcompany.com]
About The Author
Ben Robinson
Ben is a 10+ year veteran of the Mobile industry – starting his career when SMS was a still a relatively new concept for most people (!), he has now consulted on everything from bleeding-edge Mobile content, to the next-gen accessories you might view it on. As a result he has a broad and deep knowledge in numerous areas of Mobile – from network operators to device vendors, to infrastructure and middleware vendors (not to mention content delivery) – and has worked for companies in all of these areas! He is based in the UK, a hotbed of activity for mobile, and recently became a father for the second time – as oppose to in his younger years when he was happy spend time tweaking all manner of mobile devices to 'nth' degree, he now looks for services and hardware that provide the most efficient, compact, and reliable improvements to his already manic life! It’s his opinion that Mobile solutions should be there to help to make your life better – if a particular solution (be it service or device) isn’t doing this, he believes you need to ask the very important question of why you continue to use it... His focus at IntoMobile is mainly on Mobile content, services, and infrastructure, particularly as regards the UK market – and with the occasional look at devices. Additionally, using his extensive experience in the industry, he will provide commentary on the industry at large, with regular (and hopefully thought-provoking) articles.
