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Signals & imaging · Optical heart-rate measurement

Optical heart-rate measurement

Can an optical signal reveal a heartbeat?

Project account · methods and observations from my study and research notes.

01 / The question

Can an optical signal reveal a heartbeat?

A photoplethysmographic measurement contains a pulse-related component alongside baseline changes and noise. The project connected the sensor signal to a heart-rate estimate.

Measurement → processing → interpretation
Conceptual illustration of the approach

02 / The intuition

A mechanism worth testing.

Treat the analogue and digital stages as one measurement chain. Software cannot recover information that was lost or distorted before sampling.

03 / The work

Inside the method.

Explore each part of the approach.

01Condition the signal

Analogue electronics prepared the optical sensor output for acquisition.

02Acquire and process

Digital acquisition and filtering supported analysis of the time-varying signal.

03Estimate the rhythm

The processing chain extracted a rate-related result from the pulse signal.

04 / The observations

What emerged.

The notes describe a complete measurement chain. This is presented as PPG, an optical pulse measurement, rather than as an electrical ECG recording.

This account is based on recorded project notes. Original reports, figures and datasets are not embedded here.

05 / The limits

Where the evidence stops.

Raw traces, timing references and error analysis are needed to evaluate accuracy under motion or changing measurement conditions.

The academic foundations

Where this work connects.

Signal & image processingElectronics & instrumentation
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