Last Updated on February 11, 2022 by pg@petergamma.org
Are there any differences to the Polar OH1 as far as accuracy is concerned which should be validated by a scientific study?
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217288
Polar made firmware update which increases the battery life from around 20 hrs to up to 30 hrs without changing the hardware for the Verity Sense (see comments):
https://www.dcrainmaker.com/2021/02/polar-verity-sense-optical-hr-sensor-band-in-depth-review.html
Was the increase in battery life obtained by a decrease in the sampling rate? And does this affect the accuracy? If so, the procedure of Polar rises questions. Is the Polar Verity sense a new hardware development, or is it just a Polar OH1 with a firmware update? Exact data concerning the sampling rate which has an influence on the accuracy would be helpful.
Issues with the Polar Verity Sense strap
I used a setup with two Polar Verity Sense heart rate sensor for 24 * 7 data aquisition, one is charging while the other is aquiring sensor data. After about four weeks, the fist strap was broken. Then I changed to the second strap. After another four weeks, the second strap was broken. I did not apply any special force to the strap. Before I used the same setup with two Polar OH1 sensors for about 4 to 5 month. I did not have any issues with the Polar OH1 strap. I will go back to the Polar OH1 strap, and I will not use Polar Verity Strap anymore.
added 26.6.2021
The Polar OH1 accuracy has been scientifically validated:
https://journals.plos.org/plosone/article?id=10.1371/journal.pone.0217288
The Polar Verity Sense has as far as I know not been scientifically validated yet. Is the Verity Sense a new hardware development at all, or only a Polar OH1 with reduced sampling rate for longer running time?
Added 24.8.21
Polar increased battery life from the Polar OH1 which has 12h battery life as a maximal value to 30 h for the Verity Sense. Was there a hardware update from the Polar OH1 to the Verity Sense? Polar increased the battery life of the Verity Sense by a firmware update. This suggests that the Verity Sense is only a firmware update of the Polar OH1 sensor and that there was no hardware update at all.
If scientifically validated sensor accuracy data is required, choose Polar OH1 instead of Verity Sense.
Added 24.8.21
There is another scientific paper available which validates the accuracy of the Polar OH1: Validation of a photoplethysmographic heart ratemonitor: Polar OH1 (Eric Hermand, Johan Cassirame, Gaël Ennequin, Olivier Hue, Int J Sports Med 2019).
https://hal.archives-ouvertes.fr/hal-03187457/file/OH1.pdf
I could not find a scientific validation of the Verity Sense yet. Why not to choose the best validated device, if accuracy as well as comfort in wearing matters?
The battery life of the Verity Sense is now twice of the battery life of the Polar OH1. How has this been reached? I could not find any information about a better battery, or a better algorithm of the Verity Sense. The Polar OH1 has now been validated in two papers. There are accuracy data available which where obtained from by eye comparison of the Verity Sense. But these data where obtained before the latest firmware update of the Verity Sense. Is it not a failure to change the fimware of tested devices without giving information about what has been done exactly in these updates?
Scientists are looking for exact numbers, but these exact numbers are not available for the Verity Sense.
11.2.22
I stay with the Polar OH1, until there is a scientific validation of the Verity Sense, which the Polar OH1 already has (it says, that the accuracy of the Polar OH1 is near to an ECG device). Polar prolounges the battery life of the Verity Sense by a firmware upgrade in a miraculous way. I also could not find any evidence, that the longer battery life of the Verity Sense is accomplished by a hardware change (larger battery) which makes it better compared to the Polar OH1, 1 or by a miraculous software update, which keeps the accuracy of the Polar OH1. Some people believe in this miraculous software update, but I do not trust it.