I particularly like this case study that I found over on edn.com for two reasons; 1) it is nice and detailed and explains the underlying science of a heart monitor that I'd never read before, and 2) I learnt a new word in the form of Photoplethysmography.
Actually there is third reason - it explains how an ARM Cortex-M0 processor, in the form of a Cypress PSOC 4 device, can provide the processing power needed for this complex case study, to quote from the article 'a single low-cost programmable system on chip such as the PSoC 4 from Cypress can replace the op-amps needed in this application as well as the MCU and LCD interface. Featuring the low-power ARM Cortex-M0 core, combined with programmable mixed-signal hardware, this chip provides a flexible and scalable low-power mixed-signal architecture capable of meeting the analog I/O, signal processing, and real-time computational requirements of this type of application.'
The article also details the algorithm used to calculate the calories burned depending on the heart rate by a typical treadmill or other device so, now I have a better idea of how the calories and heart beat details are calculated that are displayed on the treadmill when I go for a run, next step is to discover how my Nike+ Fuelband is working out my Fuel and Steps calculations.
I'm looking forward to trying to use the word Photoplethysmography in a conversation over dinner this evening. I'd better start figuring out how to say it first....
Alban was this the infamous demo that iandrew did? Yes I recall the demo worked quite well.
Thanks for sharing Andy.
Links in case others want to learn more about Cypress
Any success placing photoplethysmography?
Not sure you remember or even saw it, but about 3 years ago, a student who did a placement in the ARM demo team created a heart rate sensor with radio link to a computer. It was of course using an ARM Cortex-M microcontroller.
It was a photoplethysmogram