Week of March 06, 2013

BioBeats develops mobile apps that capture users’ heartbeats to create interactive media experiences. BioBeats does this by having users hold their fingers over the iPhone’s camera, detecting variations in light created by the user’s pulse. The platform was developed after the company’s co-founder heart once stopped beating at an airport due to stress. BioBeats hopes to develop apps that use heartbeat tracking to reduce stress.

The company has already released one iOS app in collaboration with the pop group Far East Movement. 1.5 million people connected to the app while watching a livestream of the group on Ustream. One of the tracks during the performance was manipulated in realtime by the heartbeat data collected via the app.