The Star Trek world of instantaneous medical information is almost upon us. In those series of shows, it is called a tricorder. In real life, it is shaping up to be called an “app,” We already have tons of stuff that can read and transmit our medical history and even keep track on our vitals. Sure, its not quite there yet but every step counts. Now there is a new player in the market and it uses the magic of smartphones along with the magic of facial recognition software to read our heart rates.
Fujitsu, who have often been featured in this blog via their innovations in pet-finding technology, is back with a brand new invention. They have just announced plan to begin including health tracking technology into their future smartphones. This tech would be able to figure out your heart rate just by looking at your face. Basically, you stick your mug in front of the camera and the phone does the rest. How in the world does it do this? Subtle changes in facial blood flow are not detectable by the human eye but are able to be seen by computers. Lo and behold, smartphones are actually computers.
The company says it is going to roll out the technology in phones to be released later this year. So you won’t have all that long to wait before you can try this for yourself. In the meantime, maybe hold your index finger to your wrist like a normal person. We hear that works. Mostly. We’ll let you know when we know more!
