This new(ish) app was recently brought to my attention called Pulse by BioBeats, which makes music based on the tempo of your heartbeat to generate music based on your bio metrics.

Summary by Healthworks Collective:

BioBeats and the app, Pulse, use Adaptive Media and want to help the people that use the app live more engaging, healthier lives.

Pulse uses the optical sensor in the iPhone camera to detect the changes in color in your finger as the blood flows through it. All you have to do is hold your finger over that sensor for a minute and the app determines the heart rate and makes music off that tempo.

BioBeats was formed in 2012 when two classically trained musicians met with Nadeem Kassam, an entrepreneur who got interested in heart rate and stress following a burnout that forced him to pay more attention to wellness and healthy living. Kasaam believes that healthcare needs a revolution to make it fun and entertaining so that more people will engage in the idea of lasting wellness.

The app recently teamed up with pop group Far East Movement and invited users to stream their heartbeats in to the studio. 1.5 million fans responded to the invitation and the event was a massive success.

Kassam explains, “In the consumer space it’s really about awareness – the fans hadn't thought about monitoring their heart, but the app might turn more and more people onto self-monitoring and working towards prevention.”

They recently won the IC Tomorrow Digital Innovation Contest for Clinical Excellence award for improving digital health innovation. The prize consisted of a grant to work with the University College of London to develop a clinical application for Pulse. They will be working on producing a waveform a bit like an electrocardiograph, or ECG. This can provide clinicians with information about the way the heart is functioning, how much blood is being pumped and the distance between the beats.

From the BioBeats website: "BioBeats believes everyone should have the opportunity to learn about their health and have access to healthcare. Modern technology is enabling our visions. BioBeats builds technologies that respond not only to heart beats, breaths and movement, but also to our evolving lifestyles. We will help power the digital health revolution."

My Review

I've been feeling particularly stressed out lately due to normal life things and I decided to give Pulse a try--mainly as distraction.

I opened the App Store and searched for Pulse. Bad idea. Do you know how many apps are named Pulse that come up before this one? A lot. But eventually I found it and it was free so, so far so good.

Once I opened Pulse I arrived at the first navigation screen:


I immediately had to make a decision between "Single" and "Event." There was no explanation or distinction between each choice so I arbitrarily choose "Event" because that sounded more fun and I was ready to party with this app.

I clicked on Event and my camera flash came on with a prompt to place my finger over the camera. I kept my finger on the lens for a few minutes and nothing happened. I took it off and the prompt came back up to put my finger back on the lens. So I did. And I waited. Then I saw this screen.

The second screen shows what I'm assuming are genres-ish of the music you can create. Let's be honest, I tried them all. I recommend Dubstep.

Once you click on a genre, your flash will turn on and you will be prompted again to place your finger over the camera lens. After a second you'll start to hear a digitized version of your heartbeat which will then start to transform into a techy song with a twin tempo to your heartbeat.

Your screen will display a biometric chart showing your vitals in real time.


So you may be looking at the above picture and thinking, "Cool! But what does it mean?" And you're not alone.

Once I listened to my personalized beat, I referred back to the screen to see my biometric output but all I could find was this circle chart that I really couldn't tell what any of it meant. I thought this was supposed to be part of some healthy lifestyle revolution?

Let's read their statement from their website again... "BioBeats believes everyone should have the opportunity to learn about their health and have access to healthcare. BioBeats builds technologies that respond not only to heart beats, breaths and movement, but also to our evolving lifestyles. We will help power the digital health revolution."

How is this app helping me to learn about my personal health so I can make changes to live a more healthier lifestyle if it doesn't give me interpretations and conclusions drawn from my biometrics? Does that just make the data useless? Yes, it gives me a catchy song to listen to for a few minutes but how am I supposed to "self-monitor" like Kasaam  says they're going for? There's no long term data collection for comparing and there's no explanation of your data or inferences. This makes self-monitoring a little unrealistic.

For the entertainment value, Pulse is pretty cool for about 10 minutes... until you've exhausted your six song options and the app sucks your battery dry. But as a healthcare tool, it's just not useful. They talk a big game and it sounds really cool--who knows maybe there are going to be some updates in the future--but it's pretty disappointing and lackluster.