Body sensors

The following body sensors have been owned and used by Hans Sundgren.

Omron RS8 blood pressure monitor
iHealth scale

Image courtesy: Omron

Technical data

  • Body values: Blood pressure and heart rate
  • Display: LCD
  • Measuring range: 0–299 mmHg, 40–180 beats/min
  • Accuracy, pressure: ±3%
  • Accuracy, pulse: ±5%
  • Position supervision: Height and cuff wrapping
  • Memory: 100 measurements for 2 users
  • Interfaces: NFC-F
  • Battery: 2×1.5 V size AAA, 300 measurements
  • Dimensions: 89×61×13 mm
  • Weight: 80 g

Documents

March 2019

One morning Hans feels sick when standing up moving his head. He decides to buy a blood pressure monitor.

After some investigations he select a wrist type because it is easy to attach. The monitor he choses has NFC communication and Hans' computer has an NFC interface.

When the package arrives Hans notices that an NFC tray with USB connector (HHX3-IT3-E) is included in the package.

The monitor is connected via Bi-LINK Gateway to the health management application Bi-LINK on https://bi-link.omron.com. The measurements are then viewed on a dashboard.

Bought from Medistore 2019-03-20 for 1470 SEK.

Good

  • Very easy to attach and to use.
  • Quiet and fast.

Bad

  • The measurement has to be made with the elbow in a certain angle on a table.
  • The date and time has to be set after battery replacement.
iHealth Core: Wireless Body Composition Scale HS6
iHealth scale

Image courtesy: iHealthLabs

Technical data

  • Body values: Weight, BMI, body fat indices, lean body mass, muscle mass, bone mass, water mass, visceral fat
  • Environment values: Temperature, humidity
  • Display: LED
  • Interfaces: WiFi 802.11 b/g/n (2.4 GHz)
  • Battery: 4×1.5 V size AAA, 3 months lifetime
  • Measuring range: 5–180 kg
  • Accuracy: ±1%
  • Memory: 200 readings
  • Dimensions: 350×350×30 mm
  • Weight: 2.7 kg

Documents

October 2015

Hans noticed that a new wireless scale is available. It reports automatically to a web page and the data can then be viewed on the iPhone.

Cost: 135 EUR from iHealth Labs Europe.
Invoice.

Good

  • Very easy to use, no on-off switch,
  • Report the weight automatically to Xxxxx.

Bad

  • Not all values are available in the cloud.
  • Room temperature and humidity can only be read manually.

Transport from France to Sweden

TNT tracking email

TNT transported the scale from Paris to Västerås. The shipping cost 5 EUR is included in the price.

Data shown in My Vitals app

TNT tracking email

The data is stored in the iHealth MyVitals App.

Data shown in Health app

TNT tracking email

The data is also shown in the Apple Hälsa App.

Garmin vívofit™ fitness band
Garmin Vivofit

Image courtesy: Garmin

Technical data

  • Sensor: 3-axis accelerometer, MEMS (probably
  • Display: 25.5x10 mm
  • Interfaces: USB ANT™ Stick or Bluetooth® 4.0
  • Battery: Two replaceable CR1632 coin cells
  • Battery life: More than 1 year
  • Water resistance: 50 m
  • Operating temperature : -10 to +60°C
  • Dimensions: 21×10.5 mm
  • Weight: 26 g

Documents

April 2014

Xxxxxx

Good

  • Xxxx.
  • Xxxxxx.

Bad

  • Xxxx
  • Xxxx.

Synchronisation

 

Health and fitness panel

As a result of the synchronisation Hans' Garmin connect account gets a new panel. The data from the GPS clock is available under "Sports" while the Vivofit data is available under "Health & Fitness".

Apple iHealth wireless pulse oximeter
iHealth pulse oximeter

Image courtesy: Apple

Technical data

  • Sensor: 2 LEDs with detectors; Red probably 660 nm and IR probably 940 nm
  • Display: LED
  • Interfaces: Bluetooth 4.0
  • Battery: Built-in, 3.7 V LiIon, 300 mAh
  • Measuring range: 70–99%
  • Accuracy: ±2%
  • Dimensions: 62 ×33×28 mm
  • Weight: 42 g

Documents

October 2013

Hans investigates what body sensors that are available on the market and finds the pulse-oximeter. He has experience from that type of sensor when he was in hospital some year ago for a coronary catheterization.

Cost: 619 SEK from Apple Online Store.
Invoice.

Good

  • Very easy to use.
  • Can be used off-line from iPhone storing up to 100 measurements.

Bad

  • Not compatible with Hans iPhone 4 with Bluetooth 2.1. The unit requires Bluetooth 4.0.
  • Can not be set for continuous logging.

Xxxxxxxxx

iHealth pulse oximeter

 

Fitbit Flex™ wireless activity and sleep wristband
Sleep wristband

Image courtesy: Fitbit

Technical data

  • Sensor: 3-axis accelerometer, MEMS
  • Display: 5 LED indicators
  • Interfaces: Bluetooth 4.0
  • Battery: Non-exchangeable, rechargeable LiPoly, 5 days tracking
  • Water resistance: 10 m
  • Operating temperature : -20 to +45°C
  • Dimensions: 75 ×75×14 mm
  • Weight: 14 g

Documents

September 2013

Hans wants to measure things and when this activity sensor was available in Västerås he decided to get one for sleep measurements.

Cost: 999 SEK from Kjell & Company in Västerås.

Units included

Good

  • Very easy to use.
  • Light weight with only 14 gram and long running time on one charge.

Bad

  • Detailed reports on the web costs an annual fee.
  • Probably not accurate sleep measurements. The awake time might be based on moving the arm with the wrist band.

Synchronisation

How to synchronise the sleep sensor

 

2013-10-20: Low battery warning via email

How to synchronise the sleep sensor

One morning Hans receives an email stating: "Your Flex battery level is low. Charge your battery as soon as possible", together with instructions on how to charge the unit. Very convenient! The wrustband is located 10 meters from the synchronising computer.

2014-11-22: Low battery warning via email

How to synchronise the sleep sensor

Hans receives an email stating: "Your Flex battery level is low. The email now contains instructions on how to clean the contacts. This is a problem area. In order to start the charging, the contacts often has to be clean or wetted.

Garmin foot pod, stride sensor
Garmin foot pod

Image courtesy: Garmin

Technical data

  • Sensor: ????
  • Interfaces: Wireless 2.4 GHz ANT
  • Battery: CR2032, 3 V Lithium
  • Battery lifetime: 400 h run time
  • Water resistance: 10 m
  • Operating temperature : -10 to +60°C
  • Dimensions: 35 ×25×7.5 mm
  • Weight: 10 g

Documents

July 2013

Hans wants to measure as many parameters as possible and noticed that a foot pod would be interesting to attach to the shoe. By this he is able to calculate the average stride length when running.

The unit operates together with the Garmin Forerunner® 405GPS clock.

Cost: 695 SEK at Outdoorexperten in Västerås 2013-07-22.

Good

  • Small and light, easy to fit and use.
  • Nice integration with the GPS clock.

Bad

  • The battery last only some weeks.
  • A little bit tricky to change battery
Garmin heart rate monitor belt
Garmin pulse belt

Image courtesy: Garmin

Technical data

  • Sensor: ????
  • Interfaces: Wireless 2.4 GHz ANT
  • Battery: CR2032, 3 V Lithium
  • Battery lifetime: 3 years, with 1 h per day
  • Water resistance: 10 m
  • Operating temperature : -10 to +50°C
  • Dimensions: 1000 ×35×10 mm
  • Weight: 70 g

Documents

March 2009

Hans got the Garmin Forerunner 405® GPS clock and since that unit could be bought with a pulse belt, he got that.

Cost: Included in the price for the Garmin Forerunner® 405GPS clock.

Good

  • Very easy to use. Nothing to think about.
  • Very long battery life time; 3 years!

Bad

  • Sometimes, but very seldom, strange measurements showing too high heart rate.
  • Can't think of anything else.