This week I continued to work on coding and testing of the heart rate sensor.  The software is what I have thought and continue to think is the most difficult and time consuming part of this process, so I’m not too concerned.  I am, however, having issues getting consistent readings from the sensor.  I have been unable to pinpoint the root of this problem.  The good news is, the led output seems to be working properly, it’s more of an issue of getting the numbers that I believe I should be getting.  I looked more into that this weekend and hope to have it fully figured out come Tuesday.  At that point, I hope to be able to work on the implementation into the bands which I now have.  I have a few different bands, so I’ll be able to decide which is the best for the project.  The only challenge I foresee with the implementation is making sure the sensor is in a good place in order to accurately and consistently read the user’s heart rate.

I estimate that I’m about 50% or so done with this project.  I do not think the implementation will be too difficult, so it’s more of a matter of getting the software all good to go.  Since my initial pitch, I have decided to hone in on the heart rate sensing rather than also using an accelerometer.  This is primarily due to the fact that the heart rate sensing has proved to be a little more tricky than I had anticipated.  The main hurdle I face will be finalizing all code, at which point I will be able to progress on to the implementation into the wristband.