Spren Vision transforms smartphone cameras into real-time biomarker sensors. It can connect any app to the human body, opening up new possibilities for app providers across the fitness sector to boost engagement and retention.

It works by using the light and camera from a smartphone to detect subtle changes in blood volume between cardiac cycles, which measures the light absorption in the user's finger through a finger scan.

The launch comes after a decade of R&D involving 20m users, the processing of over 4bn biomarkers and collaboration with 117 universities. “This has allowed us to create machine learning and signal processing algorithms to extract precise biomarker measurements out of noisy camera images,” said Spren founder and CEO Jason Moore.

“We then add our pattern recognition and insight generation algorithms that look at changes in heart rate variability (HRV), heart rate, respiration, body fat, and muscle to make it easier for people to know what’s going on with their bodies regarding stress, recovery, body composition and metabolic health.”

The tech has already been deployed to the company’s 715,000 Elite HRV app users. A recent raise of USS$11.3m has brought Spren Vision out of stealth mode and it is currently being rolled out to health and fitness partners such as Fitbod, Fortë and Final Surge.

“Our goal is to make biomarkers and insights accessible to everyone worldwide, so our aim is to make Spren available through many of the popular health and fitness apps,” said Moore.