Smart blood-pressure monitor reports your readings to iPhone (video)

Some wags have talked for a long time about the “internet of things.” Now that’s being replaced by the “intelligence of things,” as evidenced by the latest web-connected gadgets at the Consumer Electronics Show. In the internet of things, companies added web connectivity to dumb gadgets.

With the intelligence of things, they add sensors, connecitivity, and the ability make use of that data.

A case in point is Withings‘ smart blood-pressure monitor. The device is made for iOS devices (iPhones, iPods and iPads). You wrap the monitor around your arm and connect it via wire to your iPhone. The free app records you heart rate and blood pressure and then transmits your measurements to your online health book. You can look at the pattern of your readings graphically over a period of time. Then you can compare them with recommended World Health Organization readings. The device is accurate to plus or minus 5 percent on pulse and plus or minus 2 percent on blood pressure.

The whole point of such devices is that they can use the internet to take a dumb device and turn it into a smart one. If you add sensors, the internet, and data analysis to an ordinary device, you get something that is worth a product upgrade, says Sean Dubravac, an analyst at the Consumer Electronics Association. The device operates on four triple A batteries. Price and availability will be available later. Check out our video demo with Withings’ Eric, who was a little nervous doing the test.