Last Updated on January 9, 2023 by pg@petergamma.org
The OpenBCI shop sells the Pulse Sensor Heart-Rate Monitor:
There are also other heart rate monitors available, as for instance the Analog Heart Rate Monitor Sensor (ECG) For Arduino from DFROBOT:
https://www.dfrobot.com/product-1510.html
The DFROBOT ECG sensor is for Arduino. But if we are a little bit skilled, we think it is possible to connect this ECG sensor also to OpenBCI. Or several modules, to develop for instance a gold standard for HR measurement 3 lead ECG device. As ECG toolbox we can try HeartPy, we think this should work, but needs to be tested.
There is also a newer optical heart rate sensor than the pulse sensor available, which is sold in the OpenBCI shop, the DF ROBOT Gravitiy Open Source Optical heart rate monitor:
The code example is for Arduino. But we think it should also be possible to connect one or several of these sensors to OpenBCI, if we are a little bit skilled. Also we think it should work with HeartPy, but needs to be tested.
These are building blocks to build new open source ECG and PPG heart rate monitors, to replace expensive ECG devices and consumer grade sports sensors, which are little validated as far as accuracy is concerned, as we can see in our review:
Open Source devices are more attractive to validate for accuracy than consumer grade devices, since consumer grade devices always change.
There are also IOT examples available for this sensor:
- According to this instruction, for a 3 or 5 lead OpenBCI ECG, only ECG electrodes are necessary, but not another ECG module.
- Still the Gravitiy open source heart rate monitor is cescribed as a premium OHR in the above video. It is therefore to prefer over the Pulse Sensor sold by OpenBCI.