Abstract
This disclosure describes the use of a single consumer earbud — an in-ear device with an integrated optical (photoplethysmographic) heart-rate sensor — simultaneously as both the heart-rate sensor and the sole audio feedback channel for real-time, hands-free, screen-free exercise support, without any separate wearable such as a smartwatch or chest strap.
Heart-rate and related samples (active energy, respiratory rate, step count, distance, flights climbed) are obtained through the host operating system's on-device health and workout framework, keeping all biometric computation on the device. A heart-rate zone configuration is derived from age (maximum heart rate estimated as 208 minus 0.7 times age, per Tanaka et al., with age computed to the actual birthday from the platform health store), with zone boundaries at 50, 60, 70, 80, and 90 percent of maximum and a bradycardia floor. Spoken value announcements use a dual-trigger logic — a periodic interval and an immediate announcement when the value drifts past a configurable delta threshold — where the two triggers maintain independent baselines so neither suppresses the other. A native speech synthesizer holds the audio session active for the duration of the activity so spoken feedback continues while the application is backgrounded, ducking other audio rather than interrupting it. A pre-activity cardiovascular readiness snapshot reads resting heart rate, heart-rate variability (SDNN), and VO2max from the platform health store and color-codes them against clinical reference ranges with data-freshness timestamps.
The disclosure further describes interface and algorithm techniques: repositioning an on-screen numeric value once per received sensor sample rather than once per display refresh frame (decoupling animation cadence from refresh rate to reduce processor wakeups); computing time-in-zone by trapezoidal integration over inter-sample intervals rather than by counting samples; a post-session histogram of the biometric signal at one-unit (1-BPM) resolution with each bar colored by its heart-rate zone; and an on-demand landscape chart inspection mode with a finger-dragged value-and-time scrubber.
Creative Commons License
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 License.
Recommended Citation
ziemski, gerard, "Consumer earbud as a closed-loop biometric sensor and ambient feedback device for exercise support", Technical Disclosure Commons, ()
https://www.tdcommons.org/dpubs_series/10440