With the iPhone we already know that many things can be done, even measure our heart rate without the need for any accessory from third parties. How is it possible? Thanks to the development of great software that allows us to detect changes in our body through the use of the front camera that the terminal incorporates.
Every time our heart pumps blood small changes occur in the tone of our skin that are imperceptible to the human eye but not for a camera. The system captures these small changes based on the light reflected by the blood that beats in our capillaries and interprets these signals to calculate our pulsations.
It is more or less the system used by other applications such as Runtastic Heart Rate Pro but with the difference that instead of having to place our index finger on the rear camera, we have to use our face. Technically it is more comfortable but there are dependencies that we will see below.
The system is not 100% reliable but it is a very powerful tool for diagnosis or for evaluating at any given moment the range of effort in which we find ourselves when we do sports.
Cardiio is an application that gives us the opportunity to know our pulsations through the use of the phone's front camera. After starting the application, we will only have to click on the representation of a stethoscope to start the reading. We will have to adjust our face to the mark drawn by the application and, after a few seconds, we will know our pulsations.
It is very important that the environment in which we carry out the measurement is well lit.Otherwise the app will crash and ask us to retry again.
The results can be memorized and Cardiio will use them to create different statistics. For example, we can see if we are fit, our life expectancy or the average heart rate we have had throughout the week or month. The downside that we see is that its price is quite high considering that there are cheaper alternatives and that its interface has not been adapted to the screen of the iPhone 5.
Still if you want keep a daily control of your heart rate and without the need to buy additional medical equipmentl, use your iPhone together with Cardiio and you will get truly valid results.
Our assessment
More information - Runtastic Heart Rate Pro, measure your heart rate with the iPhone camera
