Home / Mobile and Embedded Delivery for the NELA Cough Monitoring Device

Developing a Embedded Cough Monitoring Device

How punktum's engineers joined BreatheLabs to deliver the native iOS and Android apps for their cough monitoring device, design and build its next-generation app and set the hardware on a custom, modular path built to scale.

Expert Mobile and Embedded Delivery for a Cough Monitoring Device

BreatheLabs, formerly Carepath Technologies, is a Berlin health-technology company behind NELA, a cough monitoring device and companion app. The NELA Care app tracks coughing on the phone or together with the NELA Home device. It is an informational and tracking product and not a medical device.

The company was preparing the app and the device for launch. With deadlines nearing, they needed senior mobile and embedded capacity to push both forward without delay while keeping the architecture future-proof.

They met with us and, impressed by our expertise, embedded senior engineers from our team into theirs. On the software side we took the native iOS and Android apps through to beta.

On the hardware side we led the move off a hobbyist single-board computer toward a custom, modular PCB built for reuse across future products.

We worked as a team extension alongside the in-house team and an external development partner, taking full ownership of the modules we delivered.

The work later grew. punktum went on to design and build the next-generation app the team uses today.

"Smartphone mockup with a curling, unrolling screen effect showing an Activity tracking screen with day, week, and month toggles, a bar chart titled total by day showing 123 coughs distributed across the day with peak activity in the morning hours, and a scrollable events list below showing journal entries, a belly breathing session, a doctor's appointment, and a custom event with timestamps"

Challenge

App and device both being readied for launch as deadlines neared

Limited in-house capacity across mobile and embedded work

A hobbyist single-board computer that could not scale to future products

Solution

Senior mobile and embedded engineers embedded into the team

Two native apps built in Swift and Kotlin, with most delivery on us

A planned move to a custom, modular PCB with a new processor

Outcome

A next-generation app designed and built, now used in place of NELA

Native iOS and Android apps delivered across both platforms

A device architecture planned for a custom, modular path, then built by the client

Chapter One: Two Native Apps for Cough Tracking

BreatheLabs needed the NELA Care app delivered across iOS and Android with a small team and a firm timeline.

Punktum provided a senior mobile developer as a team extension, working alongside the in-house team and an external app partner while carrying most of the delivery across both platforms.

We built the app as two native projects: iOS in Swift with SwiftUI and Android in Kotlin with Jetpack Compose.

"Two overlapping smartphone mockups showing a health app: the front screen displaying the same activity bar chart with 123 coughs and an events list with a journal entry and belly breathing session; the back screen showing a NELA app welcome screen with a wireframe globe graphic and sign-in options for continue with Google, continue with Apple, and continue with email, along with a terms and conditions link"

The NELA Care app tracks cough on the phone through its Mobile Track feature or together with the NELA Home device over Bluetooth Low Energy. It also guides users through device setup.

Cough counts are shown on clear charts. A personalised cough profile filters out other people's coughs so the count stays accurate.

The app also includes breathing exercises with an audio player and a schedule, guided onboarding and notifications to keep users engaged.

A Cross-Platform App Now in Beta

The NELA Care app is now in beta on the App Store and Google Play. It supports German and English and is aimed at an older audience across Germany, the US, the UK, Australia and India.

As an informational and tracking product, it carries no medical claims.

Chapter Two: Moving the Device onto a Custom, Modular Platform

The first NELA device ran on a hobbyist single-board computer. To reach a portable, reliable product, the team set out to design a custom PCB of its own.

We moved the design off the hobbyist board and planned a custom PCB from the ground up, with careful choices on components and on how modular it should be.

The board was designed to be modular and reusable so the same design can serve other devices in the product line.

The new device targeted portability with rechargeable batteries and a new processor went under test.

We ran quality-assurance talks with the PCB manufacturer and its supporting company to get the design ready for production.

"Small rounded smart speaker with a fabric-textured exterior in a light gray gradient and a single circular button on top"

Chapter Three: Designing and Building the Next-Generation App

"Two overlapping smartphone mockups showing a cough tracking app: the left screen displaying total coughs of 49 with a better than yesterday indicator, a milestones section noting a new treatment on 17 June, and an outdoor conditions list showing AQI, pollen count, temperature, and humidity readings with high and moderate tags; the right screen showing a circular progress ring reading 24 with tracking status, a note stating that's 53 coughs less than your 102 baseline, and a tasks widget showing 3 of 6 complete"

As the product moved to its next generation, BreatheLabs shifted from NELA to LungIQ. Punktum took on the design of the new app and built it for the team.

We designed and built the features that shape the everyday experience: a journal, a calendar, a redesigned onboarding, a daily questionnaire and an overview with cough analytics.

This is the app the team uses today in place of NELA.

What We Delivered Across Mobile and Embedded

Native iOS App: built in Swift with SwiftUI, covering cough tracking, charts and device connection.

Native Android App: built in Kotlin with Jetpack Compose in parallel, with most of the delivery on our side.

Device Connectivity: pairing and data transfer over Bluetooth Low Energy, with guided setup in the app.

Next-Generation App Design: the new LungIQ app, designed by punktum end to end.

Engagement Features: breathing exercises with an audio player and schedule, onboarding, notifications.

Personalised Cough Profiling: the app screens out coughs from other people so the user's count stays accurate.

Custom PCB Direction: component planning, modular design and processor selection for a portable device.

New App Feature Build: journal, calendar, redesigned onboarding, daily questionnaire and a cough analytics overview.

"Illustration of a coral-colored home hub device with a cable next to a dark laptop shown from behind, with a grid-lined tablet lying on the surface in front"

The hardest part was carrying two native codebases at once as a single developer while an external team worked in a different rhythm, keeping features level across iOS and Android.

It took close coordination with the in-house team and the app partner, so we introduced a distributed working mode inside the embedded team to keep everyone aligned.

The first NELA app is in beta on both stores. From there the work carried into the next-generation app punktum designed and built, while the client took the device planning forward into its own build.

What does the Client say?

"Illustration of navy 3D opening quotation marks"

„Bringing punktum's engineers into our team helped us move forward quickly at a critical stage. Their mobile and embedded and AI experts integrated smoothly and took ownership of key parts of our product, from custom AI implementation, iOS and Android development to device connectivity and embedded hardware planning.

What we appreciated most was the quality and independence of their work. They didn't just execute tasks, but actively contributed with strong technical judgment, especially around scalable architecture and the transition to a custom PCB. Working with punktum felt less like outsourcing and more like extending our own team.”

CTO Frederico Ponti, Carepath Technologies

"Illustration of navy 3D closing quotation marks"

Where to go from here?

The original NELA Care app stays in beta on iOS and Android. The team has since moved to LungIQ, the next-generation product with the app punktum designed and built for it.

For the v2 device, BreatheLabs took punktum's planning and built the hardware itself. The modular, portable direction set during the NELA work pointed the product toward this next generation. We are glad to have helped lay that groundwork.