Heart rate monitors are great devices that truly can aid and improve training. But I’m one who has been called “heartless” and it has nothing to do with my sinister demeanor. It has to do with the fact that traditional RF based heart rate monitors just don’t work well with me. This happens to some of us, and it is downright annoying.
But now The Bluetooth Special Interest Group (SIG) has announced the finalization of two new developer specifications for connected vital sign monitoring devices that will make use of the short range wireless technology. The specs call first for a health thermometer profile, and more importantly for me, a heart rate profile
Both of these will be part of the upcoming Bluetooth 4.0 release, and will feature Bluetooth Low Energy (LE) as well as increased transfer speeds. SIG has also noted that Bluetooth could enable connectivity in medical device technology that provide vital sign monitoring and interaction with wireless devices, including Bluetooth 4.0-enabled smartphone.
Recently Dayton Industrial unveiled a heart-rate monitor that will leverage Bluetooth 4.0, and this low energy heart rate chest belt features energy efficiency technology that the company claims will enable it to run an average of 1.5 years on a single coin cell. That’s a real plus, because while I might not be so heartless I am pretty cheap!