Last Updated on February 4, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
Sensor manufacturers invest a lot of money in the development of sensors. After what we have experienced with optical sports HRM devices, we ask ourselves: If new devices are developed, is it not the first thing to test if those can be used for clinical and research applications? When the new sports watches with multiple optical sensors came on the marked, was it already clear, that they are not accurate enough for these applications, but only for sports watches?
The problem we have since several years is, that we are interested in numerical and statistical data of sports watches, but we never get satisfying data. Did testers which expensive clinical and research grade devices experience the same and stopped their testing?
And did the sensor manufacturers have these data from the beginning, and know, that these sensors can only be used for sports watches? It is frustrating to have all these accuracy testers who never deliver numerical and statistical data. And then we have a scientist which has the skills which are attractive to other scientists. But what he publishes on YouTube, does it serve the costumers or the sports sensor manufacturers?
For whom are these accuracy comparison plots helpful, if we do not have software tools to use these devices, and scientific papers which make these HRM sensors usable for our application? We do not have these papers, and we eventually never will have those.
The sports watch manufacturers have these data since a long time. They want to gain us with software updates which prolong the running time of sports HRM sensors. But they have lost the scientists as costumers, who want accuracy data with numerical and statistical data in which we can trust, and want information about these devices which are helpful for costumers, but the information which we would have needed are printed in small letters somewhere.
Eventually, the manufacturers know this since a long time.That there eventually never will be accuracy data for optical HRM devices, which deliver satisfying data for scientists. We suppose it only now, since we are amateurs as far as sensor development is concerned. But the trust in manufacturers and in accuracy validators which profit in one or the other way from the manufacturers is gone.