ABOUT THE SESSION Since the 1980s, elite athletes have used a clinical measure called heart rate variability (HRV) to help assess their fatigue, recovery and readiness to compete, but up until 4 years ago, no user friendly, affordable version was available to recreational athletes and sportspeople. This presentation will cover the stages of bringing HRV out of the lab and onto the smartphone, including making the measurement itself simple and convenient, and the evolution of a user interface that helps users decide when they should train for best effect but also discover lifestyle factors that have a major influence on their performance and overall health. ABOUT SIMON Hello, my name is Simon Wegerif, I’m a biomedical engineer and inventor who lives with my family in the beautiful New Forest in Hampshire, UK. My professional background is in signal processing, having been a pioneer of digital broadcasting at the BBC in London and Philips Electronics in the UK and Silicon Valley, where I managed a number of technology startup activities. Recreationally, I have been a keen, but not very talented endurance athlete most of my adult life, firstly in rowing, then running, triathlon and nowadays I am a competitive cyclist.

1. HRV Fit Ltd © 2013 /myithlete @myithlete

2. • Introduction
• What is the opportunity?
• What was the challenge?
• How did we approach it?
• How did it come out?
• Thoughts for the future
HRV Fit Ltd © 2013
Contents
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3. • Biomedical engineer and inventor from Hampshire
• My professional background is in signal processing
• digital broadcasting at the BBC in London
• Philips Electronics in the UK and Silicon Valley
• Keen, but not very talented endurance athlete
• rowing
• running
• Triathlon
• now competitive cyclist
HRV Fit Ltd © 2013
about Simon
/myithlete @myithlete

4. • Deliberately & repeatedly stress the body
• Force adaptation through super compensation
• Get stronger, faster, more efficient
• The magic happens during recovery
• Training = Workouts + Recovery
• If the balance between Workouts & Recovery is wrong, either:
• Under-train – improvement is slow or does not occur at all
• Over-train – improvement also does not occur !
• Overtraining = Under recovery
HRV Fit Ltd © 2013
The timing of training is important
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How do athletes train effectively ?
- it’s all in the periodisation
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6. • Subjective indications:
 Muscle soreness
 Fatigue
 Mood / motivation
 Stress
• Objective measures:
 Jump height
 Reaction times
 Cardiovascular (autonomic) measures
 Resting Heart rate
 Heart Rate variability (HRV)
HRV Fit Ltd © 2013
Measure recovery & know when to work out
/myithlete @myithlete

7. • HRV is a medical measurement
• known about for a long time
• Sensor attached to body
• Originally performed using ECG
• Some models of HRM strap
• Pulse at finger tip
• Used in Soviet space program, elite athletics
• Traditionally expensive & complex to perform
 Challenge: make it simple & inexpensive
HRV Fit Ltd © 2013
What is HRV analysis ?
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Autonomic (involuntary) nervous system
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The ithlete patent is mainly about the UX
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…not new science
• Convenient 1 min
measure
• Robust processing
algorithms
• User feedback in 3
complementary forms
• Traffic lights
• Number scale
• Charts
• Correlations between
objective (HRV) and
subjective (Likert scale)
measures

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UI generation 0 (pre-release)
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Measurement Results
Beta tester feedback: scale not intuitive, lacked countdown timer during
measurement

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UI generation 1
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Measurement Results

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UI generation 2
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Measurement Results

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Process to create UI generation 3
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Unfiltered
ideas
collection
(xls)
Magazine
& web
reviews
User
surveys
Forum,
social
media

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Process to create UI generation 3
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Unfiltered
ideas
Feasibility
study
Team
review
V3.x
Prioritised
features
Design
concepts

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UI generation 1-2 sensors
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Chest strap Receiver

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UI generation 3 sensor
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Finger sensor Direct plug in to phones
Why not
wireless?

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Generation 3 UI
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• Remove distractions during measurement

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Generation 3 UI
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• Prioritise most important information whilst allowing detail
End of measurement Dashboard

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Generation 3 UI
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• Collect hygiene & configuration settings in a simple nested menu

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ithlete creates a journey of self discovery
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• Landscape chart lets you correlate HRV changes with subjective
indicators and training load

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What has been the reaction to new UX?
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• Loving the new @myithlete app! Goes into great detail! Check
these guys out if you're looking 2monitor #recovery!
 Lee Doran, Twitter
• Version 3 Awesome!
 Michael Kress, Twitter
• Love the new app interface! Thanks! Just started using ithlete last
week, hoping will help train smarter.
 Aaron Olson, Twitter

22. • How often should you update an app?
• How to secure ongoing revenues?
• To what extent should you interface & open up APIs to other apps?
• How closely should you tie the app to your website?
HRV Fit Ltd © 2013
Thoughts for the future
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Questions and
comments?
Simon@myithlete.com