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  • photoplethysmography
  • health
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Case Study: Cortex-M0 Heart rate monitor example

Andy Frame
Andy Frame
November 22, 2013
1 minute read time.

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.

2013-02-26 11.42.03 HDR.jpg

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....

 
Anonymous
  • Lori Kate Smith
    Lori Kate Smith over 11 years ago

    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

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  • Alban Rampon
    Alban Rampon over 11 years ago

    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

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