A U.S. firm said it has developed a device that can monitor vital signs just by holding it to the forehead for 10 few seconds.

The device, called Scout, can monitor and track vital signs including temperature, heart rate and rhythm, blood oxygen levels and stress, said Scanadu, a company based at NASA's Ames Research Center in Mountain View, Calif.

The company said it created Scout to bring the technology a hospital uses to gather data into the home environment, Mashable reported Tuesday.

Scanadu founder Walter de Brouwer said he got the idea for the device while examining output from machines his son was connected to during a hospitalization after an accident.

He said he missed having the data after his son's health improved and he was taken off the machines.

"We need an instrument or tool in that battle for the ownership of the data that comes out of our body," he said.

Results can be synched from Scout to a user's smartphone, allowing people to track their health over time, watching for trends or abnormalities, Scanadu said.