Smartphones can do more than simply let you make a call, send a text, or check a video. Several personal-tech companies developing apps and software that help track when and where people with asthma need their medication.

The information is giving researchers a better sense of asthma attacks and inhaler use, which could help researchers reveal underlying triggers of asthma symptoms, LiveScience reports.

"We're collecting data about daily lives and medications," said Chris Hogg, chief operating officer of Propeller Health, a company in Wisconsin, that provides makes inhalers that patients can link to their smartphones via Bluetooth.

Whenever Propeller's "smart" inhaler is used, the phone logs exactly where the patient is when he or she is using it.

Asthma patients without a smart inhaler can use an app offered by California company LifeMap that allows patients to log the times when they need their inhalers.