Heart rate monitor and method
First Claim
1. A heart rate monitor system incorporated in an exercise machine for determining the current heart rate of the user of the machine, comprising:
- electrodes in contact with the user'"'"'s body in order to receive electrocardiographic signals therefrom, such electrocardiographic signals including a QRS complex;
analog circuitry which receives and transfers such electrocardiographic signals as analog signals;
filtering circuitry that produces filtered analog signals containing frequency-limited information regarding the user'"'"'s QRS complex by substantially limiting the bandwidth of such analog signals to a narrow low-frequency range designed to pass information that is generally found in the QRS complex of most users while limiting myoelectric and triboelectric contributions that tend to be present when the user is operating the exercise machine;
operating circuitry that converts the filtered analog signals into digital signals; and
digital circuitry that processes such digital signals against a general model of a QRS complex to provide output signals representing the current heart rate of the user.
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Accused Products
Abstract
A novel system and method for measuring and monitoring heart rate during exercise is disclosed. A near-real-time heart rate is obtained by extracting an electrocardiographic signal via electrically conductive handgrips, severely reducing the bandwidth of the signal using analog filtering, and then applying sophisticated digital correlation and logic techniques to extract the heart rate. The severe reduction of information content accomplished by the analog filter allows sophisticated digital treatment of the remaining signal by inexpensive digital processing means. In the present embodiment, a mass-produced general-purpose single-chip 8-bit microprocessor is adequate to accomplish all the required digitization and calculations.
177 Citations
22 Claims
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1. A heart rate monitor system incorporated in an exercise machine for determining the current heart rate of the user of the machine, comprising:
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electrodes in contact with the user'"'"'s body in order to receive electrocardiographic signals therefrom, such electrocardiographic signals including a QRS complex; analog circuitry which receives and transfers such electrocardiographic signals as analog signals; filtering circuitry that produces filtered analog signals containing frequency-limited information regarding the user'"'"'s QRS complex by substantially limiting the bandwidth of such analog signals to a narrow low-frequency range designed to pass information that is generally found in the QRS complex of most users while limiting myoelectric and triboelectric contributions that tend to be present when the user is operating the exercise machine; operating circuitry that converts the filtered analog signals into digital signals; and digital circuitry that processes such digital signals against a general model of a QRS complex to provide output signals representing the current heart rate of the user. - View Dependent Claims (2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, 11)
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12. A heart rate monitoring method for use in an exercise machine for determining the current heart rate of the user of the machine, comprising the following steps:
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using electrodes in contact with the user'"'"'s body in order to receive electrocardiographic signals therefrom that include a QRS complex; receiving and transferring such electrocardiographic signals as analog signals with analog circuitry; filtering the analog signals to produce filtered analog signal containing frequency-limited information regarding the user'"'"'s QRS complex with circuitry that substantially limits the bandwidth of such analog signals to a narrow low-frequency range designed to pass information that is generally found in the QRS complex of most users while limiting myoelectric and triboelectric contributions that tend to be present when the user is operating the exercise machine; converting the filtered analog signals into digital signals with appropriate circuitry; and processing such digital signals against a general model of a QRS complex to provide output signals representing the current heart rate of the user. - View Dependent Claims (13, 14, 15, 16, 17, 18, 19, 20, 21, 22)
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Specification