Smartphone based device for real-time monitoring of BP. Source: Anand ChandrasekharChecking your blood pressure in the future could be as simple as touching a smartphone case, according to developers who have been working on such a device.

Detailing their work in the journal Science Translational Medicine, researchers have, using high-tech 3-D printing, developed a smartphone case that includes an embedded optical sensor in addition to a "force" sensor.

Once the user presses his or her finger onto the embedded sensor, "it provides measurable pressure on an artery in the finger in the same way that a blood pressure cuff squeezes an artery in the arm," according to a journal news release.

Once captured, that information is fed to a smartphone app where that data is converted to a real-time blood pressure reading that displays on the phone, according to researchers from a team led by Ramakrishna Mukkamala of Michigan State University.

While more rigorous testing of the device is necessary, some specialists are calling the development a future "game-changer."

"An accurate blood pressure measurement technique is critical for making helpful decisions in the management of hypertension," said Dr. Joseph Diamond, director of nuclear cardiology at Long Island Jewish Medical Center in New Hyde Park, N.Y.

For more on the study, go to Science Translational Medicine.