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Smart watch - any benefit to pilots?

My cardio fitness is mediocre. Need to move
more. Last bicycle trip had 79-134 bpm.

always learning
LO__, Austria

Sure; they use 2 wavelengths and by turning them on and off they can probably exclude ambient light, but they still need a gap-free fit against the skin, because there is no way to distinguish light which leaked across and light which didn’t. The only way I can think of would be to detect light whose colour has changed (by passage through tissue) but that would need a multicolour sensor which AFAIK these devices do not have.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Peter wrote:

This is a difficult measurement to do just from one side of the skin. Pulse oximeters all shine a light onto one side of the finger and pick up what comes through. From one side, you have to eliminate reflected light caused by the gap between the watch and the skin. Obviously this has been solved to some degree but maybe not quite. I would look at tightening up the strap first.

AFAIU they shine light of two different frequencies and compare the relative amount of what comes through. If they simply picked up the intensity of light coming through it would be useless as it would depend on the thickness of the finger. (Among other things.) But of course light from the environment could affect the reading if the oximeter is not tight against the skin.

ESKC (Uppsala/Sundbro), Sweden

This is a difficult measurement to do just from one side of the skin. Pulse oximeters all shine a light onto one side of the finger and pick up what comes through. From one side, you have to eliminate reflected light caused by the gap between the watch and the skin. Obviously this has been solved to some degree but maybe not quite. I would look at tightening up the strap first.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

I’ve got an Apple Watch and tried several times to use the O2 monitoring function in flight. Every time the measurement failed, my guess is that due to vibration ?Anyone got any luck with that?

Poland

Peter wrote:

That is a very high rate

I found that lower cabin pressure increases the heart rate. When flying on the Learjet with a cabin of 6000ft I still used an oxygen concentrator. I compared my heart rate and O2 multiple times with my co-pilot—usually 20bpm difference. At the end of a long day flying Europe to US there was a noticeable difference in tiredness. My co-pilot preferred to keep it so. Said he’s jogging :-)

LPFR, Poland

~25 years ago I flew with a recording pulse monitor.To my surprise my pulse dropped when cleared for take-off and stayed down. Taxi, run-up, and ground ATC appeared to raise it.

Maoraigh
EGPE, United Kingdom

That is a very high rate

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom

Indirect aviation use of a smart watch. Heart rate during a flight.

Helpful for apple watch data export: https://www.ericwolter.com/projects/apple-health-export/

https://apps.apple.com/at/app/simple-health-export-csv/id1535380115

always learning
LO__, Austria

Justine bought a Fitbit watch and the ECG does work

and exactly as discussed i.e. you have to touch the sides with your other hand to pick up the signal.

Administrator
Shoreham EGKA, United Kingdom
137 Posts
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