And that’s exactly what we’ll show you in this post. A list of things that you never expect your iPhone would have been capable of doing, that you can accomplish with just a few taps. Let’s get started.
Measure Your Heart Rate
It’s quite unbelievable that you could use your phone to measure something as hard to detect as your heart rate. However, the guys at Azumio Inc. have come up with an incredibly clever solution to this in the form of an app named (you guessed it) Instant Heart Rate, which is sure to be of use if you value your health. What the developers have done with this app is to use a discovery made by the MIT that lets you use no more than your iPhone’s camera to measure your pulse. To do that, just open the application and then place your finger on the camera. After about 10 seconds the app will give you an approximation of your heart rate. Then you can tag every measurement in order to have a better idea of how your heart rate evolves depending on what you are doing.
Motion Detector
While not many of us will ever need a motion detection device, if you happen to need one and have an iPhone, you will be glad to own one. The app that makes this possible is Presence. To serve as a motion detector, the app makes use of both your iPhone’s camera and of its microphone in order to determine if anything changed on the place the camera if focused on. The app’s basic functionality is of a surveillance camera, but the great thing about it is that it uses motion and variations in sound to activate video recordings. Additionally, you can also adjust Presence’s motion sensitivity, allowing you to track movement just about anywhere. And once it detects movement, it instantly records and sends you an email with a link to the recorded video. Pretty neat.
Plane and Ship Tracking
Whether you are a professional working on aircrafts or ships, or if you are just a curious person, you’ll find the next couple of apps really useful. The apps are Ship Finder and Plane Finder, but contrary to what their names might imply, they are able to do much more than that. Both apps allow you to monitor both ships and planes using your iPhone, all in real-time. Ship Finder works by using AIS data (widely used by vessels worldwide) to identify and locate ships, while Plane Finder uses the ADS-B system, which provides planes’ locations with pinpoint accuracy. Both ships and planes are shown on a map on the screen and tapping on any of them will display information pertaining to that ship or plane, like the flight number, the ship”s length, their speed and such. A neat feature about Plane Finder is that it also allows you to use your iPhone’s camera to identify a plane on sight by just pointing at it. And there you go. If you like to use your iPhone in new and unexpected ways, then try any of these apps or show them around to your friends. They’ll be pleasantly surprised.
