New low-cost smartphone attachment to monitor blood pressure at fingertip

New Delhi, May 29 (PTI) Scientists have developed a simple, low-cost clip that uses a smartphone's camera and flash to monitor blood pressure at the user's fingertip. The clip developed by researchers at the University of California (UC) San Diego, US, works with a custom smartphone app and currently costs about 80 cents (5.6 rupees) to make.

The researchers estimate that the cost could be as low as 10 cents (0.7 rupees) apiece when manufactured at scale.

The technology, described in the journal Scientific Reports, could help make regular blood pressure monitoring easy, affordable and accessible to people in resource-poor communities, they said.