Camera-verified incentive-spirometry therapy

Turn breathing exercises into a game.

Use the incentive spirometer you were given and your phone’s camera — every breath is measured. Play it as a game, or just track your numbers. No extra device.

Play the game Track my breaths

The games

Choose your game

Every breath powers the play. Pick a game to start — or just track your numbers.

Space Gems — a breath-powered space adventure

Play Space Gems

Spider Solitaire — a breath-gated card game

Play Spider Solitaire

Breathe Words — a breath-gated word game

Play Breathe Words

Breath	Volume	Duration
1	2,000 mL	1.8 s
2	3,200 mL	2.4 s
3	4,750 mL	3.4 s

Progress

5000 mL

Improving · up 83% over 3 breaths

Track my breaths

Preview control — only visible with ?preview=1 in the URL. In use, a mission unlocks when the one before it is completed.

The challenge

A billion-dollar therapy, sitting unused.

Millions of patients are handed an incentive spirometer to protect their lungs after surgery and illness — yet most barely pick it up.

U.S. patients prescribed one each year^*

$0B

spent each year to implement it^*

of providers say adherence is poor^**

of patients never use it at the bedside^***

An incentive spirometer at a patient's bedside as a doctor talks with them

Prescribed at the bedside — then left unused.

Why patients skip it

1)They forget — the number-one reason providers cite.
2)They're in pain and exhausted, with no nudge to continue.
3)No feedback, no reward — nothing to show for the effort.

Unused, it leaves patients open to the very complications it was meant to prevent: collapsed lung tissue, pneumonia, and longer hospital stays.

^* Eltorai et al., Financial Impact of Incentive Spirometry, INQUIRY, 2018.

^** Eltorai et al., Incentive Spirometry Adherence: A National Survey of Provider Perspectives, Respiratory Care, 2018;63(5):532–537.

^*** Martin et al., Rhode Island Medical Journal, 2018.

Why it matters

When patients use it, the payoff is real.

Consistent breathing exercise prevents the lung complications that keep people in the hospital. Adherence is the whole game.

0^*

days shorter hospital stay

0%^*

fewer pulmonary complications

0%^*

less postoperative pneumonia

* Figures from Chang P-C et al. — a meta-analysis pooling 10,322 patients across eight studies. Asian Journal of Surgery, 2023;46(9):3397–3404 (PMID 36437210).

How it works

We start where recovery breaks down: forgetting.

Then we make the exercise something patients want to repeat — with no new device to buy. Five steps, one connected loop.

Step 01

Remind

Create custom alerts, as simple reminders nearly doubled how often patients did their breathing exercises.*

Step 02

Verify

The phone camera reads the spirometer — breath volume and duration — no extra hardware.

Step 03

Motivate

Space Gems turns each verified breath into play, points, and progress.

Step 04

Connect

Sessions roll into a report for the care team; missed ones raise a flag.

Step 05

Recover

The app follows patients home — where adherence usually fades the most.

No extra deviceJust the phone’s camera and the incentive spirometer already at the bedside — no Bluetooth, no tablet, no sensor.

Recovery follows homeIt lives on the patient’s phone, so adherence keeps being tracked long after discharge.

Nothing to set upPatients start at the bedside — no hardware to ship, pair, or configure.

* Eltorai et al., JAMA Surgery, 2019 (PMID 30969332)