The attractive, $129 Spire meter is unlike any other health gadget we've seen.
It looks like a small, gray pebble, and instead of wearing it on your wrist, you can simply clip it to your belt or even your underwear. The Spire, which is about an inch in diameter and half an inch thick, sits gently against your skin. You might think this will be uncomfortable, but you'll soon forget you're wearing it.
Before you can put the device on, though, you first need to charge it in its circular, wireless charging base and then connect it to the Spire app via Bluetooth Low Energy. The Spire vibrates when it’s connected and occasionally to let you know when you’re not breathing. Once you’re done with the setup and put the Spire on, the screen greets you with a live waveform of your breathing. You can watch it in real time as you breathe. The app monitors for the gadget’s so-called “striations”: 17 breaths per minute (BPM) is considered normal, while 21 BPM may indicate you’re stressed.
If the Spire senses through your breathing that you're tense, it will prompt you to begin a relaxation exercise. If you let it, the gadget can integrate location data, photos, and even your calendar to show you when, where, and perhaps why your breathing changed. The breathing data can also be shared with Apple's Health app.
Like other similar apps, Spire also includes pre-recorded coaching sessions aimed at calming you down. Spire tracks your breathing so it can more accurately pick up on when you're breathing faster or slower than your norm. However, it's also fair to say that understanding your mental health is more of a matter of luck.
The gadget is meant to be worn all day, but not at night. That's a shame, because it's during the night that we really need to monitor our breathing. The Spire also has built-in motion, so you can also get information about your steps and general activity.
The only problem we can say it has is the battery consumption not of itself but of the smartphone it is connected to.
