Heart rate app at 10: How to write a biophotonics app that reaches more than 500 million people (Conference Presentation)

How to write a biophotonics app that reaches more than 500 million people 1. Focus on what you know. In our case that was tissue optics and microcirculation imaging. 2. Watch out for new and especially consumer technologies which could be harnessed in your field. By 2010 smartphones had a good light source, a good camera and sufficient processing power to be a useful biophotonics instrument. 3. Think of a bio problem which concerns many more than 500 million people and which could be solved using this new technology. The WHO had just declared that resting heart rate was a leading indicator of cardiovascular health. 4. Train someone in the necessary skill(s). In our case that was Java which would allow us to program an Android based smartphone. We already knew a lot about tissue optics and blood flow. 5. Give it away for free. We decided to publish the idea and have provided well documented simple versions of the code on GitHub, along with an educational version on Google Play.