Ask HN: Can we monitor our hearts rhythm with a simple bracelet?
A question for all of you hardware hackers out there, is it possible to have a simple bracelet to continuously monitor your heartbeat? something slim and wearable all day long (like the Fitbit flex for example).
I've seen a bracelet where you have to use both hands to get a heartbeat measurement, but I am looking for something that constantly measures the rate, monitors the rhythm, and detects any abnormalities.
I have proposed the idea on quirky.com/invent/677338 - with alernative things you can do with a smart bracelet - but I would love to hear some validation or invalidation about the heartbeat monitoring part of it.
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For 24/7 monitoring: http://www.mybasis.com/
For sports: http://www.mioglobal.com/ and http://micoach.adidas.com/
The Basis comes quite close to what you suggest.
There's much more information in a heartbeat than just the rhythm [0]. I don't know what exactly the Basis can record, and whether more information would be useful for automatic diagnoses at all. For example, some Garmin and Suunto watches also measure the time between heartbeats to estimate the "training effect" of a workout. You should ask a cardiologist what kind of data is required to detect certain abnormalities.
Also, you will probably get a lot of false positives. If you search for "heart rate monitor spikes" you'll see what I mean.
[0] http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cardiac_cycle