We wanted to know if we can use the Polar H6 heart rate sensor to reliably record and scientifically analyse ECG data for heart rate (HR) and HR variability (HRV) analysis.
We compared the data from the Polar H6 to a standard scientific 3-lead ECG.
Details:
- Polar H6: 1-lead ECG chest strap placed on sternum, recorded with HRV Logger app (Android, LG L40 smartphone)
- ECG: 3-lead ECG Brainproducts ExG BrainAmp, recorded with BrainVision Recorder (v1.20.0506) at 500 Hz.
- Electrode placement: between right clavicle and sternum, on the left side between the two lower rips, and on the right lower abdomen.
- Data: two recordings at rest, acquired on July 21, 2015 (in github: Teil1 = part 1, Teil2 = part 2)
- Subject: healthy young male, age: 34, BMI ~21 kg/m^2
- Analysis (cf. Matlab script):
- read in raw ECG data (*.eeg)
- detect peaks using findpeaks() function
- cross-correlate resulting tachogram and tachogram from Polar H6 (to temporally align)
- plot
The Polar H6 can reliably and precisely detect heartbeats - at least in a lean young subject at rest.