Your heart rate, blood oxygen level and blood pressure are all key indicators of your cardiovascular state of health. It would follow, then, that if you want to stay ahead of problems in that area, monitoring those parameters would be a great help. Well, that's just what MOCAheart is designed to do.
First of all, there are indeed already heart rate-monitoring smartphone apps that utilize the phone's camera and light. According to MOCAheart's designers, however, their device is more accurate and provides a greater amount of information.
To utilize it, users just place a finger from one hand over its optical sensor, while placing a finger from the other hand elsewhere on its stainless steel front surface. Using red and infrared lights (combined with the optical sensor), along with an EKG sensor, it then measures the electrical activity of the heart, blood oxygen levels, and blood velocity. The latter is reportedly fairly consistent with blood pressure.
That data is displayed in real time via an app on a wirelessly-linked iOS or Android mobile device. In order to help users interpret the information, the app also gives them a 0 to 4-scale MOCA index rating, letting them know when and if they should seek medical attention.
Additionally, to provide some context, the app records and tracks factors such as weather conditions when readings are taken. Users can also add their own notes, indicating if they were particularly stressed at the time (as an example). All the data can then be viewed in graph form, showing how the user's cardiovascular health has fluctuated over hours, days, weeks or months.
One charge of MOCAheart's battery should be good for about a week of use, given approximately three to five uses per day.
The device's designers are currently wrapping up a successful Kickstarter campaign, in order to raise production funds. A pledge of US$119 will get you a MOCAheart, if all goes according to plan. The final retail price will be $169.
More information is available in the pitch video below.
Sources: MOCACARE, Kickstarter
