Imagine taking a selfie and using it for your health. New technology may allow for just such a use.
A recent study tested a smartphone-based technology that takes a short video of your face and then provides a blood pressure reading.
According to Harvard Health, researchers took two-minute videos of 1,328 Chinese and Canadian adults. Using an iPhone equipped with transdermal optical imaging, the software measures blood pressure by detecting blood flow changes in a person's face.
When compared to readings taken using a traditional blood pressure cuff, the video blood pressure readings were about 95 percent accurate.
Researchers made the videos in a controlled environment with good lighting, so it's unclear how the technology will perform in the real world. Additionally, although the study volunteers had a variety of skin tones, none had extremely fair or extremely dark skin, and most had normal blood pressure.