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

Researchers at the University of California San Diego have developed a low-cost clip that utilizes a smartphone's camera and flash to monitor blood pressure. The clip costs about 80 cents to make and may reach as low as 10 cents at scale and works with a custom smartphone app. This innovation aims to make blood pressure monitoring affordable and accessible, particularly in resource-poor communities. It eliminates the need for calibration to a cuff, setting it apart from other cuffless systems. The clip's optical design captures a red circle image projected through the fingertip, allowing the app to calculate blood pressure readings.