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Show HN: Live breath detection and biofeedback from a phone microphone
Hi everyone, I am Felix, a famliy doctor from ZH, Switzerland.
A couple of month ago I started this little project called
shii • haa, a breathing app that uses the phone`s microphone
for live biofeedback
My prior work in emergency medicine and intensive care was
closesly linked to breathing, mostly in critical situations...
and let me to reevaluate my own way of breathing. over time
one question popped into my mind: can medical knowledge and
biofeedback make an app actually promote self-awareness instead
of attaching your goals to the award system of the app.
it combines signal processing, a breathing state machine and ML.
The state machine follows inhale, exhale and transitions in the
mic signal. A quality layer rejects noisy or ambiguous windows
before signals are used for feedback. All processing is done
on-device, no speech or raw audio is uploaded.
What I'm trying to avoid is turning breathing into another score
or game. The app gives feedback on rhythm, depth and regularity,
but the point is more "notice what you are doing" than "perform
well".
I'd be interested in feedback, especially from people who have
worked on signal processing, health UX, or Android/iOS audio
issues.
- deleted 4mo ago[deleted]
- muhammadusman 4mo agocan you please review login requirement?
- felixzeller 4mo ago[flagged]
- monk_grilla 4mo agoIn the README it says > Do I need an account to try it? Not for the core breathing biofeedback; that works without creating one. Some surrounding features in the app use an account; the part this repo is about does not. I downloaded the app based on this, but you can’t use it at all without creating an account. Please review your AI’s output.
- felixzeller 4mo ago[flagged]
- rationalist 4mo agoAre your comments here also written by AI?
- felixzeller 4mo agoFair question. I do use tools sometimes to correct long reads, but the content (and thus the mistake here) is mine. I should have checked the README against the released app before posting. The README is corrected now, and there is a no-account path for the browser biofeedback demo.
- tomhow 4mo agoWhen commenting on HN, please don't copy+paste anything from an AI tool (including a translation tool) into the comment field. This is against the guidelines and stirs up negative reactions from fellow community members.
- kingjha 4mo agoHello Claude
- felixzeller 4mo agothere is a no-account path for the browser version of the biofeedback feature now.
- OsrsNeedsf2P 4mo agoAppreciate the directness, but pro-tip from an ex-mobile dev; you'll convert way better with IAP subscriptions rather than your own account system
- felixzeller 4mo agoThanks, that is actually really useful. I chose the account system because I had it from the web side, but I see your point. Will think it through properly.
- naeem189 4mo ago[dead]
- maartenh 4mo agoSounds interesting. Unfortunately not available in my country in the Android app store. I live in The Netherlands. If you're looking for feedback, you might want to double check this :)
- felixzeller 4mo ago[flagged]
- felixzeller 4mo agoThe Android app is now available in all Play Store countries except mainland China
- ncr100 4mo agoOT did GitHub change their default fonts? This MD file shows up "differently" than I am used to, today.
- stanleydupreez 4mo ago[flagged]
- jiangriver66 4mo ago[flagged]
- pasrom 4mo ago[flagged]
- esquire_900 4mo agoVery interesting idea, I hope you can progress this into a well working, proven application. I tried to do something very similar a year or 2 ago, more directed towards meditation. (Ie as a helper that uses breath to detect a wandering mind). A microphone in itself wasn't sufficient in my case, and detection was quite hard. I ended up using wired earbuds with microphones. Nice focus as well, less scoring and more signal. All the best in your project!
- felixzeller 4mo agoThank you so much for your kind words. The microphone is the hard part, so I am trying to learn where the limits are instead of just pretending they do not exist... What happened to your project?
- throwwwll 4mo agoAI slop
- frnz 4mo agoAudio normalizing seems to be quite hard for this kind of use. I tried this 20 yrs ago with parts of a (mouse-)pointer device, a rigid nylon strap around the chest and 8 cm of flexible length in between. Mouse pointer wheel (one dimension only) was driven by change of length. For some hours of fiddling it was quite reliable.
- felixzeller 4mo agoThat`s very cool. I chose the phone mic, because everybody already has one, no extra device needed. The downside is normalization: from room noise to breathing style. I do use an ML layer to deal with some of these variations but only after basic signal checks. The hard part is to decide when the microphone signal is too ambiguous to use at all...
- RomanVoropaev 4mo ago[flagged]
- xattt 4mo agoWhat about in call centre situations to monitor employees or customers’ emotional states, or fingerprinting customers?
- felixzeller 4mo agoExactly the kind of use I don`t want to support. I do not upload raw audio or speech and I don`t try to identify individuals from the signal. The app was built for voluntary feedback on mood and rhythm.
- 47282847 4mo agoSounds interesting. App not available in my region (iOS, Germany).
- felixzeller 4mo agoThanks for catching this. The iOS app is currently blocked in Germany (and some other EU countries) because DSA information is still pending. Hopefully soon. Android is available there. The biofeedback can be accessed via browser without creating an account. The link and details are in the repo README.
- 47282847 4mo agoTried it on website but I always get Signal too weak, even if I breathe heavily, in an otherwise silent room. iPhone 13mini.
- felixzeller 4mo agoGreat feedback, thank you. The browser version still depends on the device/browser mic chain and it looks like the threshold is too strict on some iPhone/Safari setups. I`ll look into this case. It should not get stuck at signal too weak if the room is silent and breathing clearly audible.
- esanyapi 4mo ago[dead]
- enigmatic2 4mo ago[dead]
- anpavi 4mo agohttps://apps.apple.com/us/app/lungy-breathing-exercises/id1545223887 https://apps.apple.com/us/app/lungy-breathing-exercises/id15...
- felixzeller 4mo agoLungy looks really nice. With shiihaa I am exploring a different direction: silent biofeedback. microphone-based breathing feedback that tries not to become the object of attention but instead supports self-awarness and introspection.
- felixzeller 4mo agoAn update after the feedback here: I added ATMOS, a BIOS-style command layer for the browser version of shii•haa: https://shiihaa.app/atmos/ https://shiihaa.app/atmos/ It explains how to open the interface: no login requirements, no availability issues. Thanks again to everyone. It helped shape the interface.