From todays Australian.Now if only we showed the wherewithal to...

From todays Australian.

Now if only we showed the wherewithal to something online in early next year like this guy....

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A SYSTEM that turns a smartphone into a mobile medical lab will let researchers cut data collection times from several months to just a few days.

The system is designed to make heart rate research cheaper, portable and straightforward.

Created by University of Sydney PhD student James Heathers, the system uses a sensor placed on the finger instead of electrodes on the chest, and a signal is sent through a hardware receiver.

The system uses software specifically designed to read the signal.

The data can be exported straight from the phone and sent to a researcher.

Data on tiny fluctuations in heart rate provides critical information on the state of a person's nervous system and is essential for a range of psychological research, including research on anger, anxiety, stress and self-control. It is also used to monitor people's health after operations and has wide applications in sports science.

"When we do heart rate variability (HRV) research in psychology, generally, we bring people into a laboratory and we use a very expensive ECG to measure the heart rate," said Mr Heathers, who is based at the university's School of Psychology.

He said the system was slightly less accurate than in a laboratory.

"The data might be a bit less accurate, but we may be able to get 10 or 20 times the amount of people to do an experiment," Mr Heathers said. "The way we have it set up right now it will return values that are about 1 per cent away from the laboratory."

Mr Heathers collaborated with biomedical engineer Simon Wegerif, who developed the hardware.

Mr Wegerif's company, HRV Fit, already had a HRV phone app - iThlete - which is widely used by professional sports teams and athletes.

Mr Heathers said the system also provided a way to collect useful data from groups who were traditionally hard to access.

"If there is an uncommon disease with 200 people in the country, and you had their physical mail addresses, instead of bringing all of them to the lab in Sydney in one hit, you can now literally send the collection equipment to them," he said.

"The best part about that is they email it straight away, so if there is something wrong with their data, you can check it then."

Mr Heathers said the sensor was estimated to cost about $80 to $100 a unit and the software would be free.

He expected the system to be available early next year.