Lungy: Development of a Smartphone-Based Breathing Management Platform with Real-time Breath Detection

Lungy (https://www.lungy.app) is a breathing management platform that uses the smartphone camera and microphone to recognise, track and respond to breathing in real-time. It is under development for patients with breathing problems such as asthma, COPD and long-COVID. The application will encourage and guide patients through a range of relaxing breathing exercises, promoting not only breathing function but also focus, user engagement, and mindfulness. The application is intended to improve physical and mental health through regular breathing exercise. With further development, the combination of data obtained from the app could provide a plastic and hardware-free, eco-friendly alternative to traditional methods of measuring breathing function, such as spirometry used in COPD and peak flow measurements used in asthma. Lungy s underlying breath recognition technology has already been developed and validated in a proof-of-concept app for patients with stress and anxiety (and no underlying respiratory problems) with >10,000 beta testers. This project would develop the application for use in patients with breathing problems, helping to bring it to market as a medical device. Focus groups of patients with asthma and COPD will be arranged by the UK's largest breathing charities - Asthma + Lung UK - to assess the potential benefits and barriers to the adoption of a smartphone-based breathing platform. This will ensure the app remains patient-centred at every stage, informing the user interface design and future development. This would enable larger studies and leading to further funding, as well as helping to develop a powerful tool for the self-management of breathing problems.