Sitting at a desk in front of a computer screen for 12 hours a day on Chatroulette can't be good for you. So while you webcam the hours away you can also keep tabs on your health with this app that can determine your heart rate based on the constant discoloration as blood pumps in and out of your forehead.

Cars are cutting you off on the highway. Your pulse quickens. You need to concentrate. What you really need is absolute silence—no phone calls, no music. In this kind of situation, a new stress-sensing system developed by Ford would shut down the distractions the moment driving becomes tense.

Currently, if a cardiac patient's heart rate gets too high the implanted defibrillator in their chest gives them a friendly remedial shock to avoid a heart attack. But that could soon change—by giving hearts their very own IP addresses.

It's been a long time coming, but finally Nike has teamed up with Polar for a wearable heart-rate monitor that works with the Nike+ SportBand and iPod Sport Kit.

The iPhone heart rate monitor prototype by Corventis will of course be useful by people who actually need to keep track of their heart health, but it could actually be used as a unique physical input device for apps.

I've got a playlist that never fails to make my heart go boom-baboom-baboom just a bit faster. According to a study from the University of Belgrade, 12 minutes of that playlist a day might actually leave me healthier and happier.