NO 24-hour heart rate monitoring on the Band

[agentmikeyd99]

They are most certainly not being deceptive.

Disagree. Love ya man, but the ad on Microsoft store is absolutely deceptive and misleading

 

[jeres88]

Disagree. Love ya man, but the ad on Microsoft store is absolutely deceptive and misleading

How so? So far from reading this thread and looking at their advertising, not to mention actually owning the device, I see nothing deceptive at all.

 

[BobLobIaw]

Because this is the only forum with a high number of Band owners/users.

If you read from the beginning of the thread, people have been stating that the unit automatically pings HR more than once an hour during the day while active and that the HRM is activated by motion. Whenever I state that is not true I get nailed to the stake and am accused of being dishonest, dumb, a shill for Mio, etc etc. Does that sound reasonable to you?

You are the third person on this forum to bring up potential lawsuit with Microsoft. That's disturbing. I would never in a million years consider suing for this... I am simply making posts on a forum. To assume that could be the harbinger for a full blown lawsuit is ridiculous. Times that by 3. Very disturbing.

Again, my purpose here is to let others that do care about continuous heart rate monitoring know that this device does not accomplish that. It may only be 1 in 10 or 1 in 20 readers here but some people do indeed care. The misinformation being tossed around here is beyond unacceptable.

I suppose I should have posted /s next to my pithy comment on filing a lawsuit, but I mistakenly thought the Red Bull reference would put it in proper context. You aren't making much sense on that issue. On the one hand you are posting things like "MICROSOFT'S BLATANT FALSE MARKETING" (your caps), but on the other hand you are saying that a potential lawsuit is "very disturbing." Is this a material misrepresentation by MS or are you just spewing hyperbole?

At this point, I am going to wait to see what clarification Daniel posts after his discussion with Microsoft. It does appear, however, that you are the source of much of the misinformation in this thread.

 

[Yonic Boom]

Disagree. Love ya man, but the ad on Microsoft store is absolutely deceptive and misleading

I'd probably wait for his article clarifying the issue first.

 

[agentmikeyd99]

I'd probably wait for his article clarifying the issue first.

The ad clearly says 24 hour monitoring. Good thing my alarm company has a different definition of 24 hour monitoring

 

[SammyD97]

What a tiresome thread over a word..
(I binged it...)

Continuous indicates duration without interruption.
Or is it..
Continual indicates duration that continues over a long period of time, but with intervals of interruption

whichever it is, I hope the Band comes to my part of the world... I'm getting it.

I did the same thing (albeit googled it). As far as I can tell the word continuous is not on the band's page but used by one of the engineers in an interview. Boy did he start trouble. Most people use the words continuous and continual interchangeably, although incorrect. He's an engineer not an English professor. On the website it only says 24-hour heart rate monitoring, (which it does) which is what should have been the OP's guide.

 

[BobLobIaw]

The ad clearly says 24 hour monitoring. Good thing my alarm company has a different definition of 24 hour monitoring

You are implying that someone is personally watching your house 24/7. That's not the way it works. They respond if an alarm trigger is activated.

Edit - Daniel has now clarified exactly how the Band HR monitoring works.

 

[Daniel Rubino]

The ad clearly says 24 hour monitoring. Good thing my alarm company has a different definition of 24 hour monitoring

It does do 24-hour monitoring. You are quibbling over sample rate, which is different.

Microsoft makes no claims on a sampling rate e.g.'Every second the Microsoft Band is recording your heart rate', which would be something to contest as false advertising.

 

[Daniel Rubino]

Article is up: http://www.windowscentral.com/how-often-microsoft-band-checks-your-heart-rate

Long story short:

• Exercise modes (Run and Workout): Heart rate records every second
• Sleep tracking : 2 minutes on, 8 minutes off. Repeats throughout duration
• All other times : 1 minute on, 9 minutes off, and repeating the cycle
• Manual: You can force-check your heart rate at any time by tapping the Me Tile

 

[elyl]

Article is up: http://www.windowscentral.com/how-often-microsoft-band-checks-your-heart-rate

Interested to know what you did in the medical field before coming here. Does hackery pay more than medicine in the US?

 

[Daniel Rubino]

Interested to know what you did in the medical field before coming here. Does hackery pay more than medicine in the US?

Trained as an EMT in Connecticut; later on did EEGs in grad school for language/brain research; later still I was a polysomnographic technician at Weill Cornell/NY Presbyterian (aka a 'sleep tech').

This pays more, sad to say, although I do cherish my experiences. I really enjoyed working with patients in NYC.

 

[elyl]

Cool. I had a sleep study done once. Also had a tube down my nose/throat. Wasn't the best night's sleep I'd ever had. They could just give me a Microsoft Band these days, I guess (although I don't think SpO2 is one of the 10 sensors, maybe v2).

 

[crelim]

Article is up: http://www.windowscentral.com/how-often-microsoft-band-checks-your-heart-rate

Long story short:

• Exercise modes (Run and Workout): Heart rate records every second
• Sleep tracking : 2 minutes on, 8 minutes off. Repeats throughout duration
• All other times : 1 minute on, 9 minutes off, and repeating the cycle
• Manual: You can force-check your heart rate at any time by tapping the Me Tile

Thanks for this post. Finally some technical content rather than a detracted thread discussing bias! Phew. I was not at liberty to post such information, however I tried very hard for the OP to understand what continuous and sampling rate means. Thanks again.

 

[pj737]

Article is up: http://www.windowscentral.com/how-often-microsoft-band-checks-your-heart-rate

Long story short:

• Exercise modes (Run and Workout): Heart rate records every second
• Sleep tracking : 2 minutes on, 8 minutes off. Repeats throughout duration
• All other times : 1 minute on, 9 minutes off, and repeating the cycle
• Manual: You can force-check your heart rate at any time by tapping the Me Tile

Where exactly did you get this information from. Can you provide us a source?

I can't speak for the sampling rate when I'm sleeping because I haven't observed the optical LED when in sleep mode... but I can tell you that my optical sensor is NOT on for one minute out of 9 minutes during the day/evenings when not sleeping.

Here's how you can test your unit... place it on your wrist fairly loosely. Go into a dark room and plan to do something uninterrupted (like read a book) for at least 10 minutes. Place your wrist so that you can barely see the underside of the optical sensor. If you are in a dark room, the LED will light up and grab your attention instantly. If not, the sensor did not turn on and no HR data has been logged.

Alternately, you can just glance at your wrist every 30 seconds (you can set up a repeating timer on your phone) for 10 minutes and you will see that the optical sensor does NOT turn on for one minute out of every 10 minutes.

Also note that I have tested TWO units and both behaved identically. So either I received two identically defective units or your information is false.

Let's assume I have two defective units. Being that it takes up to one minute for the optical sensor to get a "lock" on your heart rate and the optical sensor is only physically on (i.e. LED light on) for one minute, that means that the Band is not actually sampling HR data for 1 minute out of every 10 because it's spending 90%+ of the time trying to lock in your actual heart rate. Therefore the Band only provides several heart rate data points over 3,600 data points over the course of an hour (other inexpensive heart rate monitors update HR every second). I am curious as to how this serves any value to the consumer when it comes to calculating caloric expenditure. If you don't understand what I am talking about please go back to my earlier post using a car and MPG as the analogy. I was not being rude about it, I was trying to use effective analogies so people can understand where I'm coming from. The Band literally has no idea what my caloric expenditure is based on my heart rate for 99% of the day. How is this useful?

I'm not being a doosh here so please stop with the inflammatory posts. Please stay on topic and let's keep this discussion technical. No **** hurt comments please (that goes for me as well). I really would like to understand the value of the HRM. I just put my order in for a Basis Peak. Basis also states on their website that their product offers 24-7 HR monitoring but if the Peak is no different than the Band, the Peak is also going back.

 

[SammyD97]

Where exactly did you get this information from. Can you provide us a source?

"We asked Microsoft specifically about how often the Band acquires your heart rate, and they were more than happy to provide the information.

We asked about three specific scenarios: regular activity/step counting, sleep, and workout/run mode"

 

[ytrewq]

Here's how you can test your unit... place it on your wrist fairly loosely. Go into a dark room and plan to do something uninterrupted (like read a book) for at least 10 minutes. Place your wrist so that you can barely see the underside of the optical sensor. If you are in a dark room, the LED will light up and grab your attention instantly. If not, the sensor did not turn on and no HR data has been logged.

Alternately, you can just glance at your wrist every 30 seconds (you can set up a repeating timer on your phone) for 10 minutes and you will see that the optical sensor does NOT turn on for one minute out of every 10 minutes.

You haven't been listening. We've all been telling you that it does, indeed, come on a lot more than you are claiming. This isn't a situation in which everybody who has a Band is making up their experience except you.

In my case, I have been observing for several days and I have seen the green light on quite a bit. I hadn't stopped to time it until Daniel posted his article. I then did just what you describe above: I sat and watched it. The green light came on for exactly one minute. Then it went off. Exactly nine minutes later, it came on again. Not nine minutes and twelve seconds; nine minutes exactly.

You've been pulling so much information out of your ear, and been so hostile throughout this thread, that nobody believes you when you claim you tested the devices you had. Everyone else is getting the 1/10 experience that Daniel described -- although maybe we hadn't timed it before to see exactly how long it took, we all told you that your "once per hour" claim was not what we experienced. Yet you persisted. And persisted. And still you persist. But no matter how many times you repeat yourself, you aren't going to change the minds of those of us who sat here with a stopwatch and -- surprise, surprise -- found that it works exactly the way Microsoft told Daniel that it works.

 

[valadon]

Here's how you can test your unit... place it on your wrist fairly loosely. Go into a dark room and plan to do something uninterrupted (like read a book) for at least 10 minutes. Place your wrist so that you can barely see the underside of the optical sensor. If you are in a dark room, the LED will light up and grab your attention instantly. If not, the sensor did not turn on and no HR data has been logged.

Ok I tried it PJ, I went into a dark room sat on the bed started a timer and waited....about 8 mins later the light came on and stayed on for about 1 min. I reset the timer and started the clock when the light went off and I waited.....9 mins on the nose, green light! Wherever Daniel got his info it is in fact spot on. Lets please put this issue to rest now!

 

[elyl]

I'm not being a doosh here.

Oops!

 

[spaulagain]

Wait, you don't even own a Band yourself? You've been arguing with me this whole time and you don't even have a unit in your own hands? Good grief. I must be in the twilight zone.

What the hell does having the band myself have to do with this?

You've made two arguments...

1. That "continuous" means recording every second.
Arguing against that does not requiring own a device. It's simply a matter of subjective interpretation.

2. The device only records one an hour at best.
Considering the multiple other people that have claimed otherwise, I don't need to have a device either. I can use their evidence to support the argument. And seems how you are the only one that claims it doesn't record more often, my argument against your evidence is far more logical. Now if several others had stated theirs was only recording once an hour, then I wouldn't have supported either and waited until I got one.

Your attitude and attacks against other threads boosted my support of others evidence because you continued to discredit your own evidence by displaying immature actions, and hints at a hidden agenda.

My arguments in this thread are completely warranted and logical. If you don't think so, then once again you have some serious issues personally.

 

[spaulagain]

I did the same thing (albeit googled it). As far as I can tell the word continuous is not on the band's page but used by one of the engineers in an interview. Boy did he start trouble. Most people use the words continuous and continual interchangeably, although incorrect. He's an engineer not an English professor. On the website it only says 24-hour heart rate monitoring, (which it does) which is what should have been the OP's guide.

THIS

This is the point I made earlier about the support pages having the word continuous used. But the marketing pages not having it.

At my company, support staff and it people write the support page content with not much language ridicule from marketing etc.

Whereas the marketing/sales pages are written and ridiculed over and over by the marketing team. Going through every sentence and word.

I think this is a clear case of lose word use by certain staff. And has nothing to do with MS intentionally misleading. The OP had to literally go digging for the use of continuous.