Cardiogr.am - Heart Rate App for AppleWatch and AndroidWear
Finally, we have meaningful data!
If you have an AppleWatch or AndroidWear device, here's a heart rate app that could be one the "killer apps" for runners and the health conscious. By now you may have seen the Health app on iPhone and may have found it hard to find meaningful charts. While they do show you the data being tracked, they provide very little feedback, and we find it frustrating even how hard it is to find your saved workouts on the Apple Watch.
Good thing someone finally decided to take all that health data being collected with your smartwatch — steps, heart rate (soon emotions!) and make sense of it to give you meaningful charts. We spoke to Brandon Ballinger, the guy behind the app, also a member here on our community blog — @bballinger.
It's All About Those Super Burritos
Well, maybe that's where it started, over a burrito at Chipotle. Besides who wouldn't want to know what's happening next time you're crushing some Chipotle? It actually all started over curiosity and being disappointed by the lack of charts and graphs from his Moto 360. That led to him to build the first version of Cardiogram for Android Wear.
Brandon is actually an ex-Googler with experience in data analytics and deep-learning algorithms. He's also working with researchers at the University of California, San Francisco and soon launching a substudy at UCSF with the Health eHeart study. We're hoping we can get the Smartwatch.me community to start donating data for a good cause!
"There's so much we don't yet know about how our bodies work because we've never been able to measure them continuously." -@bballinger
Heart Rate Analytics
The way the App works is by connecting to your iPhone Health app or to your Google Fit on AndroidWear. Once connected, the app pulls the data in order to produce a nice visual graph — showing your heart rate for the whole day, or how your heart reacts during an intense workout. You can then track spikes to your heart rate related to stress, diet, or exercise. By tracking the changes of your resting heart rate, you are able to determine a key indicator of your cardiac health. And finally, after an exciting moment, share a graph of your heart rate via email, Twitter, or Facebook.
Hey Doc, Is That You On My Wrist?
It's exciting to see developers stepping up and filling gaps, making these wearable devices more useful for daily life and pushing innovation in health forward. It's not hard to imagine a future where your smartwatch will be the central hub for all your health as sensors become more advanced. DexCom has already made an app that can track glucose levels on your watch by allowing display readings from its diabetes glucose monitor right implanted under the skin.
We think the future certainly looks bright for wearables. Thoughts? Or questions about the app? Keep it going below...
