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 discolouration as blood pumps in and out of your forehead.
Using similar techniques to MIT’s Eulerian Video Magnification, the app is able to see details that are essentially invisible to the naked eye. And, in this case, it recognises and isolates the subject’s forehead which gets subtlely more intense in colour as oxygenated blood is pumped in.
Of course, knowing you have a healthy heart rate isn’t a guarantee you’re in perfect health. So maybe one day the app can go a step further and scan for Dorito powder-covered fingers, or mountains of empty Mountain Dew cans, for a more accurate assessment. [GitHub via Boing Boing]