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Getting your heart rate using R and Ruby.

114 points by benarent 14y ago

danso 14y ago
Before anyone jumps in with "Why do all that coding just to do what I can do with my hand and chest?"...this is a cool hack that shows practical code for breaking down a video file and measuring changes. The same concept could be used to, for example, count number of unique faces that pass through a room/hallway. Or, for a C-SPAN clip, gauge when who speaks when (depending on whose face is center-frame during a debate). And other less pedantic ideas.
- zheng 14y ago
  Plus computers actually remember things. I think anyone here can see that a computerized method of gathering data isn't interesting for the method per se but the ease of keeping and analyzing said data over a period of time.
benarent 14y ago
Thanks for the up-votes everyone. I have a coupon code for anyone interested in getting Saus book / e-book.
- diego 14y ago
  I'm interested if you still have it. If it's gone I may still buy the book, it looks very promising.
  - benarent 14y ago
    Send an e-mail to me ben@airbrake.io.
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
sadga 14y ago
Apps that do this using your phone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=si.modula.android.instantheartrate&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=si.modula.andr... Similar: http://hackerne.ws/item?id=4062216 http://hackerne.ws/item?id=4062216 " Eulerian Video Magnification for Revealing Subtle Changes in the World (mit.edu) 555 points by clockwork_189 57 days ago | comments "
EzGraphs 14y ago
Interesting read. I think that the combination of Ruby (for data aggregation and preparation) and R (for calculation and visualization) is great. For instance, in the related-but-not-exactly category: http://www.r-chart.com/2010/10/max-heart-rate-calculations-compared.html http://www.r-chart.com/2010/10/max-heart-rate-calculations-c... It seems like folks who use R tend to be from a scientific community where Python has greater respectability and acceptance. But I see some similar "Lispiness" in R and Ruby that make them somewhat natural to use in conjunction.
- buckwild 14y ago
  I second this. I'm a scientist who also happens to program (as more of us are finding we need to do). The two languages I use the most are R and Python. Most of the time, I don't even give Ruby a second thought because it seems to be primarily geared towards web development. In general, I shy away from web development, but I know that Python is more than capable if I wanted to try it out. There really doesn't seem to be any incentive for us to learn Ruby.
  - JonnieCache 14y ago
    There is nothing in ruby that is geared towards web development, not any moreso than python anyway. It just happens to be mostly used for that. Ruby does however lack a lot of the ecosystem of scientific libraries python has, there is no real equivalent to NumPy for example.
    - a_bonobo 14y ago
      Ruby also has the reputation of being much slower than Python, and speed is crucial in the scientific community when it comes to handling data-sets in the range of terabytes. Edit: Also, when it comes to computer-technology the scientific community outside of CS generally lags far behind what CS is coming up with - for example, blastn, the most commonly used algorithm in biology for nucleotide-comparison, still doesn't have a proper 100% multithreaded solution. There is also no adaption of NoSQL or any other of the "modern" data-storage solutions.
sausheong 14y ago
Thanks everyone for the upvotes and the positive comments! I'm the author of the blog post and the book.
- spsaaibi 14y ago
  I've been reading your book for a week now Sau Sheong Chang, I can't stop! It's a fascinating read! I'll let you know when I'm done, thanks for writing this!
gautamc 14y ago
The idea of detecting change in the amount of light is also used by the PulseSensor - http://pulsesensor.myshopify.com/blogs/news/6326816-anatomy-of-the-diy-heart-rate-monitor http://pulsesensor.myshopify.com/blogs/news/6326816-anatomy-...
deepGem 14y ago
This is very cool. A very useful demonstration of what you can do with R, for those of us who are non-researchers.

114 points by benarent 14y ago

danso 14y ago

Before anyone jumps in with "Why do all that coding just to do what I can do with my hand and chest?"...this is a cool hack that shows practical code for breaking down a video file and measuring changes. The same concept could be used to, for example, count number of unique faces that pass through a room/hallway. Or, for a C-SPAN clip, gauge when who speaks when (depending on whose face is center-frame during a debate). And other less pedantic ideas.

zheng 14y ago
Plus computers actually remember things. I think anyone here can see that a computerized method of gathering data isn't interesting for the method per se but the ease of keeping and analyzing said data over a period of time.

benarent 14y ago

Thanks for the up-votes everyone. I have a coupon code for anyone interested in getting Saus book / e-book.

diego 14y ago
I'm interested if you still have it. If it's gone I may still buy the book, it looks very promising.
- benarent 14y ago
  Send an e-mail to me ben@airbrake.io.

deleted 14y ago

[deleted]

sadga 14y ago

Apps that do this using your phone: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=si.modula.android.instantheartrate&hl=en https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=si.modula.andr... Similar: http://hackerne.ws/item?id=4062216 http://hackerne.ws/item?id=4062216 " Eulerian Video Magnification for Revealing Subtle Changes in the World (mit.edu) 555 points by clockwork_189 57 days ago | comments "

EzGraphs 14y ago

Interesting read. I think that the combination of Ruby (for data aggregation and preparation) and R (for calculation and visualization) is great. For instance, in the related-but-not-exactly category: http://www.r-chart.com/2010/10/max-heart-rate-calculations-compared.html http://www.r-chart.com/2010/10/max-heart-rate-calculations-c... It seems like folks who use R tend to be from a scientific community where Python has greater respectability and acceptance. But I see some similar "Lispiness" in R and Ruby that make them somewhat natural to use in conjunction.

buckwild 14y ago
I second this. I'm a scientist who also happens to program (as more of us are finding we need to do). The two languages I use the most are R and Python. Most of the time, I don't even give Ruby a second thought because it seems to be primarily geared towards web development. In general, I shy away from web development, but I know that Python is more than capable if I wanted to try it out. There really doesn't seem to be any incentive for us to learn Ruby.
- JonnieCache 14y ago
  There is nothing in ruby that is geared towards web development, not any moreso than python anyway. It just happens to be mostly used for that. Ruby does however lack a lot of the ecosystem of scientific libraries python has, there is no real equivalent to NumPy for example.
  - a_bonobo 14y ago
    Ruby also has the reputation of being much slower than Python, and speed is crucial in the scientific community when it comes to handling data-sets in the range of terabytes. Edit: Also, when it comes to computer-technology the scientific community outside of CS generally lags far behind what CS is coming up with - for example, blastn, the most commonly used algorithm in biology for nucleotide-comparison, still doesn't have a proper 100% multithreaded solution. There is also no adaption of NoSQL or any other of the "modern" data-storage solutions.

sausheong 14y ago

Thanks everyone for the upvotes and the positive comments! I'm the author of the blog post and the book.

spsaaibi 14y ago
I've been reading your book for a week now Sau Sheong Chang, I can't stop! It's a fascinating read! I'll let you know when I'm done, thanks for writing this!

gautamc 14y ago

The idea of detecting change in the amount of light is also used by the PulseSensor - http://pulsesensor.myshopify.com/blogs/news/6326816-anatomy-of-the-diy-heart-rate-monitor http://pulsesensor.myshopify.com/blogs/news/6326816-anatomy-...

deepGem 14y ago

This is very cool. A very useful demonstration of what you can do with R, for those of us who are non-researchers.