Orbura: a camera check-in that becomes a baseline — Presage SmartSpectra SDK Challenge

This is a submission for the Presage SmartSpectra SDK Challenge

What I Built

Orbura Companion — a consent-first camera check-in that turns the Presage SmartSpectra SDK into an about-a-minute wellness ritual, wired directly into Orbura, a longitudinal health platform that converts physiological signals into one safe action.

The product architecture is split across two complimentary surfaces:

• Orbura Companion (Electron + @smartspectra/node-sdk at showcases/presage-smartspectra/) is the capture instrument. It owns the local camera stream, the explicit consent gate, the guided scan, and the live multi-channel physiological waveforms.
• Orbura Web Platform (Next.js at orbura.famile.xyz) is the canonical record. Check-ins land securely as camera_vitals observations alongside wearable data, feeding autonomic recovery baselines, exception triage, and clinical continuity.

The core thesis: A single reading is trivia — accumulation is health. Day 1 is a reading; Day 30 is a baseline.

The Video Showcase

Watch on YouTube (85-second film with full spatial cinematography, narration, and physiological research callouts).

The film demonstrates the complete loop from first principles:

1. The Human Moment: Daily check-in at the kitchen table.
2. On-Device Consent: Explicit privacy guarantee before camera hardware initializes.
3. The Sensor Lock: Remote optical plethysmography (rPPG) locking onto micro-capillary vascular flushes across facial landmarks.
4. Live Signal Extraction: Real-time extraction of autonomic Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia (RSA) into four live charts.
5. The Payoff: 9 BR/min resolving into "Today's one action: Take ten slow breaths before your next meal."
6. Longitudinal Record: 30 days of breathing waves tightening into an empirical personal recovery baseline.
7. Scale of Opportunity: Over 3.8 billion existing cameras in pockets and laptops transformed into proactive health sensors.

Visual Architecture & Live Product Flow

1. The On-Device Privacy Architecture

Before a single video frame is captured, the user is presented with a clear privacy contract. Processing is performed in-memory on the user's Mac using the SmartSpectra SDK. Raw pixels, video, and facial landmarks are never stored or transmitted. The camera indicator remains visible, backed by a persistent "Live · Not recording" status.

2. Multi-Channel Signal Extraction (rPPG & RSA)

Upon starting measurement, the SmartSpectra SDK initiates remote photoplethysmography. The interface visualizes four continuous physiological channels:

• Breathing Rate (BR/min)
• Raw Breathing Waveform (Respiratory Sinus Arrhythmia)
• Pulse Rate (BPM)
• Arterial Pressure Trace

Confidence and position metrics continuously guide the user through a dynamic SVG guide oval, turning vibrant green (Ok — Hold still and record) once optical lock is achieved.

3. The Payoff: One Manageable Action

Most health dashboards dump endless charts on users, creating cognitive overload and anxiety. Orbura deliberately reduces the session to:

1. Deterministic Vitals: Measured breathing rate and pulse.
2. One Thing to Notice: An educational takeaway on vagal autonomic recovery.
3. Today's One Action: A single, clinic-approved behavioral micro-step that fits into the user's day.

4. The Longitudinal Record (Day 1 → Day 30)

When the user taps Save to Orbura, only numeric values and timestamps cross the boundary via an encrypted link token (POST /api/vitals/check-in). Over weeks, these check-ins establish an empirical baseline band. Deviations trigger proactive nudges or clinician review before minor stress compounds into chronic exhaustion.

Code & Setup

• GitHub Repository: https://github.com/udirobert/orbura (Public)
• Companion App: showcases/presage-smartspectra/ — Electron + @smartspectra/node-sdk
• Web Platform & Bridge API: src/app/api/vitals/ (check-in, latest, link-token routes) and src/components/hrv/CameraVitalsPanel.tsx
• Demo Composition Code: showcases/presage-smartspectra/demo-video/ (Vite + WebCodecs composition engine)

Running the Companion (Judges)

git clone https://github.com/udirobert/orbura.git
cd orbura/showcases/presage-smartspectra
npm install

# Add your Presage API key (or export SMARTSPECTRA_API_KEY)
echo "YOUR_PRESAGE_API_KEY" > .smartspectra-key

npm start

Note: The companion runs standalone without an account (guests attribute to an ephemeral local device ID), so judges can test the full capture loop immediately without creating an account.

Prize Categories

Entering both hackathon categories:

1. Most Creative or Delightful Use

• Check-in as Ritual: We designed the interaction as a quiet, respectful morning ritual rather than clinical telemetry.
• Dynamic Feedback: From the breathing MiniOrb to the reactive guide oval and living baseline wave animations, motion design provides intuitive physiological feedback.
• Architectural Separation: Splitting the capture instrument (local Electron app) from the longitudinal record (web platform) creates an intuitive, modular product architecture.

2. Best Thoughtful Real-World Use

• GLP-1 Care Continuity: Designed to solve a massive real-world healthcare bottleneck: helping patients navigating chronic medication titration stay engaged without needing expensive, charged wearable hardware.
• Uncompromising Privacy: Real on-device processing. No raw images, no video recordings, and no facial landmark arrays ever touch a server or cloud bucket.
• Honest Feedback at Every Boundary: Thoughtful fallback states across camera permission denials, unlinked accounts, and variable lighting.

Consent and Data Handling Disclosure

• Explicit Consent Gate: The camera stream is blocked until the user accepts the transparent privacy charter.
• On-Device rPPG: Photoplethysmography computation executes locally in-memory via the SmartSpectra SDK.
• Numbers-Only Sync: Only scalar metrics (breathing rate, pulse, HRV timestamp) leave the machine, and only upon explicit user tap on Save to Orbura.
• Wellness Scope: All outputs carry the SmartSpectra wellness disclaimer — intended strictly for wellness tracking, stress recovery, and habits, never clinical diagnosis or treatment.

Built with Presage SmartSpectra SDK for the DEV Challenge. Code, setup guide, and documentation are open source on GitHub.