New phone means new things…

My Android phone was ridiculously problematic.  The battery life wasn’t reliable and the reception spotty.  I finally conceded and replaced it with a iPhone 4s.  I have a 5s already and use a case on my bike to house it while travelling.  The new phone is a bit shorter than the 5s, so I thought I’d check with the case manufacturer for a 4s case.

The manufacturer is Tigra Sports and they offer a variety of products.  They have the 4s case, but the mounting hardware is different than the 5s…bummer.  But I did notice they have a heart rate monitor that is non proprietary.  It uses BLE, also known as Bluetooth Low Energy technology.  The price of the monitor is reasonable, and the fact it’s non proprietary gives it potential for use in projects.

We have a board for that…

There is a board made by Adafruit that allows BLE integration with microcontroller projects.  Linking devices that use BLE is simpler, based on the demo provided.  It stands to reason that this board would be the mediator between the Tigra heart rate monitor and the Arduino.  I assume that a second board would be required to communicate with a smart phone with BLE support.  I’m getting the impression that BLE is a point to point comm link, not a star mesh link.

Displaying sensor readings in real time…

This would be particularly useful with the sensor helmet.  Having the ability to view telemetry while riding could be insightful.  This will require the development of an app to display the values that are easy to understand.  The data storage chip is well suited for a global view, such as heat maps.  The live display can help identify conditions that may not be available afterward.  One example would be a spike in smoke detected on the sensor, but there is no additional information about the source.  Live readings would allow the rider to investigate upon noticing the spike.

Multiple points of detection…

Having the chest sensor also allows me to validate the readings from the helmet heart rate sensor.  I’m also curious about multiple heart rate detection points to provide more data besides heart rate, such as blood pressure.  I will need the services of someone qualified in medicine to develop something this advanced.  However, the sensor technology is becoming smaller and more available.  These factors make it possible for this level of precision.