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Scanadu Scout 'medical tricorder' for smartphones breaks crowdfunding record

Scanadu Scout 'medical tricorder' for smartphones breaks crowdfunding record

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Scanadu Scout
Scanadu Scout

Scanadu, the health startup aiming to arm consumers with a smartphone accessory capable of reading vital signs on their body, has taken another step forward in making its "medical tricorder" a reality. Having met its $100,000 crowdfunding goal on Indiegogo in one day, the Scanadu Scout went on to become the website's most funded project ever, ending with $1,664,574 in total funding from 8,500 backers. While Canonical's Ubuntu Edge smartphone looks set to smash that record, the campaign is some way off its $32 million target.

The Scanadu Scout is a hockey puck-shaped device that is placed against your temple to measure your heart rate, temperature, respiratory rate, run an electrocardiogram, and detect oxygen levels in your blood. The data it collects is paired with an iOS or Android smartphone via Bluetooth LE, allowing you to analyze, track, and identify trends in your vitals "with unprecedented simplicity." Its makers believe the device will help owners detect illnesses as they happen and make doctors more productive if they are supplied with detailed information about a person's body.

Analyze, track, and find trends in your vitals

While Scanadu intends to market the Scout as a consumer health device, it is calling its Indiegogo backers "testers" while it compiles the necessary information to file with the Food and Drug Administration (FDA). When testers receive their Scout, they can partake in official clinical studies to gather the data the company needs, but only if they opt in. Should Scanadu get the approval it needs to start selling the Scout commercially, it hopes to make the device available by early 2015. Indiegogo backers can expect to get their unit by March 2014.