Kinsa Smart Thermometer: Take More Than Your Temp

From staying fit, to tracking your vital signs or fertility, and maintaining focus (a constant struggle!), it just keeps getting easier to use your smartphone to stay healthy. And now I’m adding the Kinsa Smart Thermometer to my list of smart tech that will eventually be in my medicine cabinet. Currently a project on indiegogo, the first thing you’ll notice about Kinsa is that it comes equipped with a headphone jack.

Why you ask? The headphone jack means you can plug the thermometer into your smartphone, showing your temperature in the app that comes along with the device.

But the easy-to-read display is just one small part of why I love Kinsa. You can record a lot more than just your temperature. Using the preset symptoms, you can note whether or not you also had a cough, felt achy, or had the chills. The app will then save it as part of your profile, helping you track symptoms and your health over time. When you come down with something more than just a 24-hour bug, program your doctor’s info into the phone so you can call to schedule an appointment directly from the app.

And the final piece—because it’s no longer just about creating a smart device, all of these companies do something for the greater good, too—the Kinsa thermometer is part of Kinsa Health, which uses the app to keep anonymous local data about symptoms and identify what kinds of bugs might be going around. If you’re starting to feel sick, input your symptoms, and check to see if other people in your city (and even your neighborhood in some places) are feeling under the weather, too.

Check out the video below to learn more about Kinsa, then head to indiegogo to fund the campagin and reserve your smart thermometer.

What do you think of Kinsa? Would you use it to stay healthy? Tell me in the comments below or on Twitter!