Gizmodo: heart monitor

Twitter Device Tweets Heartbeat, Scares Relatives When Twitter Crashes

Jack Loftus — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 17:00:00 EDT

We have to hand it to that Twitter thing. From further boosting the egos of outspoken tech industry personalities to supporting Iranian revolutions, the service has demonstrated its strengths. Today, the service can let relatives know you are still alive.

Developed by Japanese geek forum Koress Project, the Akiduki Pulse box does this by autonomously posting your heartbeat to Twitter. Once there, friends, family and enemies can all watch as your natural rhythms play out on the world stage in real time.

From the translated promotional video:

"Now I can die and post this info to Twitter. That's what I call a revolution!" and "Use the Akiduki Pulse box when you do sports, are in love or don't even know yourself if you're still alive!".

The tweets themselves contain some basic info about your heartbeat, as well as an evaluation (Jack needs food—badly!). The device is open source (cool), but to use the system you need access to a heart monitor (not cool). [Asijin via CrunchGear]

iPhone Heart Monitor Tracks Your Heartbeat Unless You Are Dead

Jesus Diaz — Mon, 29 Sep 2008 08:20:00 EDT

Here's a really cool application for the iPhone: Heart Monitor uses the iPhone microphone—especially the one built into your headphones—to record and track your heartbeat from your chest, wrist or neck. Watching the video, it looks like it will be a perfect application for both sports people and hypochondriacs, even while it comes with a couple of disclaimers:

Before buying Heart Monitor please make sure you can find your own pulse in your neck (directly below your jaw) or wrist, click arrows below the pictures for pulse locations. If you cannot find your pulse you may have difficultly using Heart Monitor.

If you cannot find your pulse, you may also be dead, but that's another story. It also says that the iPhone Heart Monitor shouldn't be used for medical applications, but it looks good enough for me. I'm planning to use it for resting, after going to the gym, and drinking five pints of Guinness while eating a greasy burger. OK, maybe just the first and third one there. The application looks like a winner for just $4.99. [Heart Monitor]

VitalJacket: Heart Monitor And T-Shirt in One

Kit Eaton — Mon, 21 Apr 2008 07:38:16 EDT

Some of the same kind of health telemetry that the French army may be using could be yours in the new VitalJacket product. It's a smart T-shirt with a built-in electrocardiogram monitor, designed for both medical diagnostics and sports fitness uses. It's supposed to be less awkward than conventional devices, as well as more comfortable. The HWM200 version sends data on the wearer's heart over a Bluetooth link to a phone or PDA, allowing real-time monitoring. The 100 version stores it on an SD card for later analysis on a PC and allows the wearer to define heart rate limits which trigger a vibration alarm in the shirt. Both editions are available for pre-order for around $635. [Vitaljacket via Talk2myshirt]

French Army to Get Aliens-Like Biomonitors

Kit Eaton — Thu, 17 Apr 2008 11:45:11 EDT

Soldiers in the French army will have their heart rate, BP and other vital signs monitored by telemetry à la the troops in Aliens as part of the next-gen combat suit due around 2015. The FELIN system —Fantassin à Équipements et Liaisons Intégrés— will now include this health-status uplink so commanders can check on their troops in real time. Presumably this'll aid planning, so that the least worn-out guys can be used effectively. The opinion of an anonymous ex-Foreign Legion guy is a little different: "the reality is that a remote command post should better not have detailed information about who is shot and what are the injuries." He may have a point, since there's many a battle that's been won by knackered-out troops whose life-signs may have had them withdrawn when using this system. What's your opinion, guys? [The Register]