NO 24-hour heart rate monitoring on the Band

[greyskytheory]

I have a Suunto Ambit with a heart rate monitor I strap on for my workouts and I also have a Microsoft Band. They both serve different purposes and they're used for and expected to function differently from each other. The bottom line is that the constant hr monitoring you are expecting out of the band is not necessary and also not a hindrance when you consider all of the other monitoring options and customization you get. I workout religiously, monitor and track my food, sleep and workouts and still can't think of a reason to monitor every single second of my hr. I once had to wear a hr monitor when I had high Bp but the device was provided by a doctor for medical purposes. It had one specific purpose, choose the proper device for your needs and all will be well. Also, of you push the lil shoe icon then scroll to the right your hr is displayed for you. That seems constant to me.

 

[OwenDL]

Dear Astondog-

At this point the OP is so determined to believe that the Band is a failed product and in his quest to find other people who will label the Band negatively, his vision is clouded and no matter how much sense you make, he'll believe that he's being attacked and we're all ravaging MS fans who would kill ourselves should our corporate overlords order us to.

There's no bias on the thread, just people using their brains. Take your band back and get your money back.

 

[Daniel Rubino]

he only time I can get the optical sensor to activate and stay on is when I start and actively stay in an exercise session. I am not exercising 24 hours a day.

This seems to be the case, or rather, it periodically pings for a HR reading--I say this because in your activity history, even for just walking, it does have a HR reading, so unless it is just making it up, it is getting your HR.

But correct, it is not monitoring/displaying 24/7 when not exercising. Once put into Running or Exercise, it seems to go into a 'live' mode where the display and HR stay on.

See my image of my 'steps' and my HR. Unless you are saying MS is just making **** up, it is clearly recording my HR, even while I have the Band in Sleep Mode (you can clearly see when I woke up):

 

[Jerry Wall]

Yeah, looking at my heart-rate chart for overnight, I can see dozens of datapoints per hour, so the once an hour thing is flat out wrong, and to keep repeating it reveals an agenda. It may not be every second, but it's definitely a regular check.

 

[onlysublime]

yeah, I think it's regularly checking now. I went back to the heart rate screen and it was still locked and measuring. earlier, it wasn't.

 

[tk-093]

Yeah, I have not seen any bias in this thread. Seems to me the band works how it should. Even my hardcore cycling friends who wear those chest heart monitors only wear them when they are actually cycling. Every second monitoring when I'm just sitting on my **** watching TV seems pointless.

 

[jlzimmerman]

Security company ad on TV-

"We will guard your home with 24-hour continuous video recording of your property. Any criminal activity will be recorded."

One day a customer of the advertised security system gets robbed. Customer calls the security company -

"Can you please pull the video from the incident last night when our home was burglarized"

Response from security company -

"We are sorry but our 24-hour continuous recording of the property only provides one image per hour. We are sorry to regret that the robbery took place outside of that time frame. Please have a nice day."

Again, the bias on this forum is profoundly deafening. :smile:

I understand your point and I have to agree that MS advertising bends the truth at times. All these tech companies do. All companies do. When is the last time you got a burger that looked like the one on the commercials? I would recommend returning the item and get something that would make you happy. And if the MS rep asks why the return, tell them.

 

[stephen_az]

1 measurement per hour is useless. What about the other 59:59 in the hour? Misleading.
Microsoft made it seem like the Band was taking samples at frequent intervals, like 1x1s, 1x5s, 1x10s, etc. Not 1x3600s

Hopefully there is a manual option to check, mine has yet to arrive.

EDIT: Does anyone actually know how many times it records in an hour? :sweaty:
EDIT2: I am guessing not .. Sure they have fancy algorithms, this thread is confusing me.

Here are the essentials:

Track your heart rate with Microsoft Band

Taking anything being said here as more than hearsay is not advisable. Go to the source, read the information, and contact them with questions if necessary. If you take stuff in this thread seriously, all you are getting are opinions masquerading as facts. Even the line about support "exactly said x" is not exactly what they said. It is not language customer support would ever use if they want to keep their jobs. It is a translation coming through the filter of one person....

 

[ven07]

Just spoke to Microsoft support. Their exactly words were "the 24-hour heart rate monitoring capability touted by Microsoft is NOT true; the battery capacity will not allow the optical sensor to remain on continuously".

So there you have it folks, the device does NOT monitor your heart rate 24 hours a day as the Microsoft website states it does. My unit is going back to the store. What a total bummer. Was looking forward to owning a device that truly monitors heart rate 24-7. We're not quite there yet folks. Shame on Microsoft for getting peoples' hopes up with false advertising.

Thanks for that OP I was actually considering this band so I could quickly check my heart rate

 

[satrus08]

Thanks for that OP I was actually considering this band so I could quickly check my heart rate

I think you can quickly check your heart rate . Press a button and it will calculate your hr over a brief period(maybe 30-60 seconds). This was mentioned somewhere. Someone please confirm?

 

[Bobvfr]

I have read this entire thread and very disappointed no one has done the "Are you sure you aren't dead" joke.....




Bob

 

[crelim]

Security company ad on TV-

"We will guard your home with 24-hour continuous video recording of your property. Any criminal activity will be recorded."

One day a customer of the advertised security system gets robbed. Customer calls the security company -

"Can you please pull the video from the incident last night when our home was burglarized"

Response from security company -

"We are sorry but our 24-hour continuous recording of the property only provides one image per hour. We are sorry to regret that the robbery took place outside of that time frame. Please have a nice day."

Again, the bias on this forum is profoundly deafening. :smile:

Technically, even a continuous video is 24 or 30 times per second. This same "continuous video" is insufficient for analyzing a car crash slow motion type capture while it is sufficient for recording a robbery. Why? Because robbers don't move faster than 30 times per second while a car does. So When MSFT band takes many HR samples per minute, it is sufficient to track HR variations and dynamics for the band's specific and advertised health features. And in exercise mode, it goes all-in as the HR changes rapidly.

I really hope you stop playing the bias card and discuss science and technicality. I am merely trying to share my knowledge and experience with you politely and with patience because I personally think expecting more from a product is a consumer's right and should be executed, however giving out misinformation that this product does one HR sample per hour is factually incorrect and quickly becoming a distraction. The device displays hourly data averaged from many many BPM estimates it made during that hour.

If you still think this information has been biased, I apologize. I tried hard to simply lay out facts about hardware as an engineer and I have failed to explain you what sampling rate has to do with calling a sensor continuous.

 

[crelim]

1 measurement per hour is useless. What about the other 59:59 in the hour? Misleading.
Microsoft made it seem like the Band was taking samples at frequent intervals, like 1x1s, 1x5s, 1x10s, etc. Not 1x3600s

Hopefully there is a manual option to check, mine has yet to arrive.

EDIT: Does anyone actually know how many times it records in an hour? :sweaty:
EDIT2: I am guessing not .. Sure they have fancy algorithms, this thread is confusing me.

I will repeat again: It is NOT 1 measurement per hour! The graph that displays the data shows it that way. The band has smarts and it can do anywhere from many measurements per second to a few per minute depending on what it senses your HR variation is. In my daily routine, it turns on at least 15-20 times during an hour and what I am walking it keeps it on even longer because it knows my HR needs to collected more frequently.

See the sleep graph I posted in this thread. You can easily see even during sleep with minimal motion it does >10 measurements per hour!

Edit: See sleep graph below.

 

[Yonic Boom]

This is hilarious.

I'm going to pick up one of these later today.

 

[runamuck83]

Wow... glad people can find something to complain about. I was getting worried.

 

[pj737]

I will repeat again: It is NOT 1 measurement per hour! The graph that displays the data shows it that way. The band has smarts and it can do anywhere from many measurements per second to a few per minute depending on what it senses your HR variation is. In my daily routine, it turns on at least 15-20 times during an hour and what I am walking it keeps it on even longer because it knows my HR needs to collected more frequently.

See the sleep graph I posted in this thread. You can easily see even during sleep with minimal motion it does >10 measurements per hour!

Edit: See sleep graph below.
View attachment 86212

Why does everyone keep defaulting to the granularity of HRM measurements WHEN SLEEPING. Thank you for pointing out that Band's HR monitor is analyzing HR data at least a few times an hour when sleeping.... I NEVER argued that... my point has (and has always been) that the heart rate monitor is NOT taking my reading consistently throughout the day WHEN I AM PHYSICALLY ACTIVE. I mean heck, I'm no rocket scientist or anything but I would think that a FITNESS TRACKING DEVICE would want to gather heart rate data when I'm most active, no? And to those that think the device is indeed taking frequent pings on my HR throughout the day when I am active, YOU ARE WRONG. How do I know? Because the LED on the optical sensor is NOT ON. Yes, people... if the green LED is not on, the Band is NOT taking any HR readings. Please don't try to say Microsoft has some other magical sensor device(s) that can extrapolate with unique algorithms and obtain an accurate HR WITHOUT the physical optical sensor being activated. Seriously... it's ridiculous. And no, like some people on this forum have suggested, the Band does NOT activate the HRM when you begin to move around (that would be GREAT)... or even move around vigorously... or even move around vigorously for long periods. I can run up and down my stairs 10 times in my home and TRIPLE my resting heart rate yet the HRM will stay OFF. I can sweat and get my body temperature up way high and the HRM will stay still stay off. Dead as a door knob.

I've said it once, twice and will say it a million times... the bias on this forum is deafening.

 

[runamuck83]

Hey bud - we get it, you don't like it. Take it back and spare the rest of us your further rantings.

 

[Upstate Dunadan]

I have to point out, by your definition, a "continuous" morphine drip would KILL you.

 

[Chris_Kez]

Sounds like you have a defective device; hopefully a replacement will work correctly. Keep us posted. Cheers.

 

[pj737]

Hey bud - we get it, you don't like it. Take it back and spare the rest of us your further rantings.

Nah, I'd rather keep it and bicker... if people didn't bicker technology would never improve.

BTW, you can do yourself a favor and spare yourself from my rants by not clicking on the thread. It's not that hard really.