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New EMFIT HRV Monitor System

8 January 2018
tfk, the5krunner
17 Comments

FTC: Affiliate Disclosure: All links pay commission

EMFIT QS has been upgraded to include new sensors that can be embedded into mattresses. This is a development from the previous system (reviewed below) that allowed the sensor to reside underneath the mattress – whilst still working ! I use one myself.

The new sensor is advertised to be sensitive enough to distinguish between the heart beats of two users in the bed.

Source: EMFIT

 

EMFIT REVIEW QS, Gen 2 HRV 💤 Sleep 💤 Monitor, Sleep Tracker [2022 version]

 

Best REI/Wiggle/PMC price is linked to. $279 or £234 and UNlikely to fall in 2018.

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Brian

If the new product is to be embedded into mattresses then it won’t be for consumers directly?

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tfk, the5krunner

i’m not entirely clear.
I think there is a new product
I think there is a new product embedded into a mattress (presumably sold by the mattress company)

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Brian

There will be a new update to the product I just don’t know when. Here is what I found in the press release.

For individuals

Emfit is launching its upgraded sensor technology to provide more stability when monitoring movement and breathing readings for one individual when two people share a bed. The flex-material sensor pad slides easily under the mattress for comfortable contact-free sleep. Emfit’s sensors have been used in numerous scientific studies. These sensors provide highly accurate readings for:
• Heart rate
• Heart rate variability
• Time in bed, bed exits and returns
• Sleep time
• Stages of sleep (deep, light, REM, total)
• And more

EMFIT QS upgrades include:
• Designed for smart home integration, monitoring room temperature and humidity
• Added Bluetooth for easier initial Wi-Fi setup and use during travel
• Autonomous – no app, software or phone required; no batteries to charge; data is stored in a secure cloud server
• Dashboard can be easily shared as desired, with comprehensive visual graphs.
• 10-hour minimum buffer memory expandable with micro SD card to store longer periods of data
• USB-C allows data output to other peripherals, also from cloud.

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tfk, the5krunner

hey! you’re doing m job for me there!! I hadn’t got around to researching that one yet. THANK YOU
I do use emfit every day.
those upgrade features DO looks useful esp the bluetooth which essentially means you could take it to hotels with you as your travel. as it stands it IS possible BUT difficult.
the temperature and humiduty is useful i guess. the metrics are otherwise as they are now. they shoudl, imho, ahve concentrated on alert-based features through sms/email.

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Brian

Ha. Clearly I’m looking to get one and want to get the newest version. Interesting thought on the alert based features. What alerts were you thinking about? I think I wish they had an iOS app. How do you like its functionality without iOS or Android integration?

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tfk, the5krunner

as per my review of it

alerts to say that hrv has changed outside of a certain range, that kind of thing.
alerts to exceptions

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Eli

Have you tried comparing the data EMFIT gives with something like ithlete or hrv4training? Not so much caring what the specific numbers are as they will be different (one based on data during sleep, the other done after waking up) but the ability to tell if you need to recover more or not. So the action to take based on the data, not the data itself.

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tfk, the5krunner

i used biororce (ithlete) quite a lot in years gone by. i used that as ONE input to recovery/readiness. all the various methods never fully agreed.
a cursory comparison of emfit to bioforce from time to time tells me they dont see things in the same way
i’m not training as much as i used to and so probably don’t REALLY need to use those products too much so my interest has waned a little.
having said that i occasionally looked at emfit last year with my ironman training and it was generally useful as an input.
looking back on the data with hindsight it was clear that very significantly incresaing my load over an extended period cause similar (bad) trends in hrv. but on a weekly/bi-weekly basis the trends were not quite so obvious.

not sure if that answered the question
how about: if you feel you can rely on garmin in-exercise recovery metric then you cold equally easily rely on emfit to take a decision

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Eli

More wondering if emfit gives just as good feedback which requires them both to agree on when you need more rest or ready for more load.

In order for them to give useful feedback it seems like they need a baseline and have you use the tool everyday. Emfit seems like its all automatic which is great while the smartphone tools require you to measure everyday. Does seem like being upright is slightly better position wise then laying down plus you can since you know when exactly its measuring you can be sure to hold a position that gives a good reading while with emfit, you’re hoping the reading it picks is valid. So if you’re willing to do the work a smartphone app should be better at that data point.

Me? I’m too lazy to always remember to use the app first thing in the morning so if emfit comes close to the smartphone app I’d rather use emfit or something like it.

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tfk, the5krunner

they sometiems agree. but they are notably different.
i did the smartphone thing for what, maybe, 3 years…every morning. say no more.

emfit IS good but, as per the review, because you dont interact with it you almost forgt about it and dont use it. hence my comment about it needing exceptio/alerts.

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Brian

Yes there is also a new updated sensor that will be included for manufacturers as you mentioned.

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Eli

You know what could be useful? A list of all the sleep aid/trackers that are out there. (ignoring wearable trackers that are focused on other things like fitbit and garmin devices or things everyone does like white noise machines) with the basic metrics they try to track (HR, movement, breathing, etc) and/or how they try to help you sleep (sunrise/sunset simulators, audio cues (think, sleep shepherd), Somnox’s sleep robot, etc)

Does seem strange that the device that help you sleep don’t work together with tracking devices. So thinking I’ll need a Somnox sleep robot and EMFIT

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tfk, the5krunner

yes the white noise could be a factor in the marketing too.
BEDDIT is the other one that is established and worth considering. I have been planning to do something with that for over a year. Then working on that review might address some of the points you raise.
however beddit have been bought by apple and the product appears to now be either being discontinued, waiting for a v4 or incorporated into wearables. so i’m at an impasse.

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Eli

The idea is less of a review, more a collection of all the devices out there as there are lots.

I used Beddit from the beginning. It was ok but annoying how you had to always start and stop it (plus the initial issue where the device needed more power their USB power supply gave which v2 fixed) The main improvement only came to Apple devices like auto sleep detect. Seems like a good device but ios only, not worth it for android.

There is Nokia Sleep now which looks like the Withings sensor (Aura) without the clock with sunrise/sunset simulator (They bought withings and killed the Aura right after the purchase). Doesn’t seem to measure as much detail:
https://support.health.nokia.com/hc/en-us/articles/115015758247?_ga=2.81933023.873754848.1515714163-851596298.1515714163

There is the Eight sleep people who have a bed (like emfits’s new entry) and a mattress pad which is a heater and tracker of heart rate, breathing, etc but not HRV

Beautyrest has one, Zeeq pillow, Oura ring, hello sense, SevenHugs HugOne, Resmed, Thim ring, and I’m sure lots more

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tfk, the5krunner

i’d only look at sporty-related things.
this general topic is an area of interest to me.
i have so much to do that i need to work out an angle where i can add some value and make a bit of cash to recoup my time.

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Eli

Assisting sleeping helps with everything. For monitoring will have to at least track heart rate. Some might be better by tracking HRV and providing a better athlete focused UI but seems like you can tell a good amount by just looking at the trend in resting heart rate.

Why they don’t do much of tieing that data with power meter data that tracks your status, I don’t know

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tfk, the5krunner

yes totally agreed with the sleep comment. Joe Friel has just retired and his two final blog posts were on just that topic (also mentioning EMFIT as it happens 😉 )

I always wondered if sleeping tabs help recovery jsut because they give you more sleep or if that impacts on the adaptation process or, indeed, if such muscle relaxants don’t help if tomorrow is race day.

yes agreed with the trending in rHR. it should go down as HRV goes up.

PM data. i’ve never given that too much thought as i look at hr/hrv. But I think you might find that is what XERT are trying to do with their concept of Maximum Power Available (MPA). They definately adjust MPA from minute to minute and, if memory serves correctly, they adjust MPA inter-day too. So there IS recovery and adaptation incorporate dinto their measure i believe.

which makes total sense: do an ftp test now. will it be the same if you do it again in 5 hours (wouldn’t for me). would it be the same tomorrow (wouldn’t for me)

Actually thinking about it FIRSTBEAT also include it (power) in their readiniess algorithm

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