Read In Depth about it
With Advent of Wearable technology, fitness wearables have gone on to become the first thing that comes to mind, to make them more accurate and reliable the technology behind them also have improved a lot. PPG sensors have been one of the reason to make this happen. PPG sensory have been the primary factor, making wearable smart enough to detect Heart rate, blood pressure which wasn’t possible earlier.
So let’s dive in to learn more about PPG Technology.
What is PPG technology?
To start with PPG Stands for photoplethysmogram, Photo means Light, Plethysmo means change in volume, Gram means graph. So to put this together PPG (photoplethysmography) means high precision light sensor used to detect volume of blood flow to understand the fluctuation in heart rate.
Why PPG is necessary?
Traditionally ECG (Electrocardiography) sensors are used for Heart rate and rhythm detection. Since ECG sensor are bulky they cannot be used to detect heart rate when body is motion. That’s when Scientist came up with PPG technology.
Photoplethysmography (PPG) technology was develop with an intent to make smallwearable heart rate sensors. PPG sensor are compact in size and still provide near perfect result to that of ECG sensor.This helps to accurately and continuously measure heart rate and heart rate variability even during extreme physical activity.Being Compact in size PPG technology have made it breeze ,bringing complex heart rate measuring technique to palms of mankind.
How PPG works?
When the heart beats, capillaries expand and contract based on blood volume changes. PPG optical sensor, utilizing motion-tolerant technology, emits light signals that reflect onto the skin to accurately and continuously measure weak blood flow signals.
Principle of PPG
- PPG makes uses of low-intensity infrared green (IR) light. When light travels through biological tissues it is absorbed by bones, skin pigments and both venous and arterial blood.
- Since light is more strongly absorbed by blood than the surrounding tissues, the changes in blood flow can be detected by PPG sensors as changes in the intensity of light
- The voltage signal from PPG is proportional to the quantity of blood flowing through the blood vessels. Even small changes in blood volume can be detected using this method, providing higher precision.
PPG technology Adaptation
The PPG technology has been used in a wide range of commercially available medical devices for measuring oxygen saturation, blood pressure and cardiac output, assessing autonomic function and also detecting peripheral vascular disease.
PPG isn’t a new technology. The blood volume pulse detector used in hospitalsince 1980,uses finger photoplethysmography to measure heart rate and relative volume of blood volume.
This Technology is now slowing getting mainstream with premium Smartwatches and Fitness tracker. Let us know your thoughts on same, will you buy a Premium Smart tracker/watch which has PPG.
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