CalmCheck: a 60-second breathing check-in that listens to your pulse

This is a submission for the Presage SmartSpectra SDK Challenge

What I Built

CalmCheck is a 60-second breathing check-in that listens to your pulse. Sit in front of your camera for one minute: it reads your pulse rate and breathing rate live with the Presage SmartSpectra SDK, shows them as they happen, and gives you a calm score that rewards slow, steady breathing near 6 breaths per minute. A breathing orb rises on the inhale and falls on the exhale, with live pulse and breathing readouts and a summary at the end. No wearable, no account, nothing saved.

Demo

Demo video to be added — a short video showing the live pulse and breathing signals in action will be linked here.

Code

Public repository link to be added — the repository link will be added here once it is published, with setup instructions included.

How It Responds to Human Signals

CalmCheck uses live pulse and breathing rate, plus HRV. A Node server runs the official @smartspectra/node-sdk v3.4.0: it creates a SmartSpectraSDK instance with an API key, requests breathing, cardio, and face metrics, and disables telemetry. Metrics are decoded as they arrive and streamed to the browser via server-sent events. Pulse is shown as a 12-second average (40-110 BPM), with confidence 0 until the first 12 seconds have passed. Breathing is a 30-second average (5-40 breaths per minute), and the upper-chest trace drives the breathing orb and the live chart. The calm score rewards breathing near 6 breaths per minute. The HRV Baevsky Stress Index is shown as well — lower means calmer. Face and expression metrics are requested, but no decision is made from them.

Prize Categories

Best Thoughtful Real-World Use. CalmCheck is a one-minute everyday ritual for stress before work, study, or sleep — a small, private check-in that helps you slow down, with no wearable and no account needed.

Consent and Data Handling

The camera starts only after you tick the consent box and press Start, and only on your own machine, for the 60-second session or until you press Stop. In live mode, camera frames go to Presage servers for measurement, and SDK telemetry is off. CalmCheck itself stores nothing: no video, no frames, and no numbers are saved, uploaded, or shared. Pressing Stop or closing the tab closes the camera, and everything is gone. There are no accounts, analytics, ads, or tracking. CalmCheck is for wellness only — it is not FDA-cleared and is not a medical device.