Alivecor Kardia

Alivecor make products that read your EKG. The Kardia Band was previously reviewed and although convenient as it's always on your wrist (it's an Apple Watch add-on) it's extremely susceptible to movement, external interference and lots of other constraints so it's not always easy to get an accurate reading. It also takes a while to process the result as a lot of noise has to be filtered out.

The Kardia Mobile is much easier to use. It's a unit with two electrode pads on it (underneath there's a battery compartment which holds a CR2016 coin cell) which should give about 12 months of use.

Download the free iOS or Android Kardia app and then set-up an account. Then take a reading and the app will search for the Kardia Mobile device and pair with it (it uses Bluetooth 4 so a recent'ish iOS or Android phone must be used with a recent OS).

The app will wait a while, while you put your first and second fingers from both hands on either pad, then relax and the app will record your EKG. It needs to read about 30 seconds to get a sensible heart rate reading.

After the reading is saved it will tell you if there are any abnormalities or anything. As the pads are large and the signal is being received from across the body, the results are much cleaner and less susceptible to interference (compared to the Watch version).

The EKG Characteristics are single lead ECG, 10 mV peak-to-peak input dynamic range, 30 second to 5 minute recording duration, 300 samples per second sampling rate at 16 bit resolution.

There are extra features such as unlimited storage and history, summary reports for your doctor, blood pressure monitoring and tracking weight and medication (though the last two need manual intervention) that are available through the premium service which is available as an in-app purchase.

There's also a phone attachment strip that allows the Kardia Mobile to be carried with the phone (glues on to the phone).

The Kardia Mobile costs £99 direct from Alivecor.

AliveCor Kardia band for Apple Watch

AliveCor make things that can read your ECG (EKG) and they've now released the Kardia band which is an Apple Watch strap.

It's easy to install, just press the release buttons on the underside of the Apple Watch, slide the original straps out and insert the Kardia Band ones (the sensor band goes into the one at the bottom of the Watch).

The watch rebooted after the sensor strap was inserted, but it came back fine.

You need to have the Kardia app installed and register an account, then make sure it's installed on the Apple Watch.

Running the app on the phone doesn't do much (it's designed to work with other AliveCor products). Opening the app on the watch then gives you the option of recording an ECG. It's best to have your hand resting somewhere and not moving much (there are options in the app to select which region you're in and whether you're in a 50Hz or 60Hz mains area).

The sensor strap has two sensors, one underneath the strap and one on top. Say the watch is on your left hand, lay that flat somewhere and place the right hand on to it and your finger on the top sensor. Hit record (well you'd probably do that before, you're given some time before a reading is taken) and a countdown timer starts, stay as still as possible until it finishes. After the reading is taken is does some calculations and you can scroll through your ECG and the watch app tells you if it's normal or not (couldn't test the not normal reading) and you can save the results.

It's possible to allow another user to use the app, but the watch needs to be placed on them.

The band costs £99.00 direct from the AliveCor site in both 388mm and 42mm versions. It's a nice quantified self device to have, but expensive and unless you have a heart problem, don't know if really worth it and have to wait to find out how it affects battery life of the watch.