Is it possible to develop an app that displays the pleth wave from the pulseox sensor?
The sensor definitely generates the data required as that is used to generate the saturation percentage (and HR), but I am not sure if is accessible for apps.
It is a feature available on $25 fingertip units.
What can you do with this information?
Raw waveform view:
1. Viewing the waveform is a neato feature for everyone
2. Knowledgeable people can visually discern quality of signal (it says 85% but is it because of a bad signal or is it really 85%?), visualize irregular HR
3. Recording raw waveform data is useful for analyzing sleep related issues (sleep apnea) by validating whether recorded desaturations were true or spurious readings. A $40 fingertip unit can record this. But with the 945 and later models able to record respiration, this would be an amazing and unprecedented amaetuer home sleep study tool (correlate HR/SpO2 with RR).
Applied analytics
1. An app could analyze and generate irregular HR, frequency of ectopic beats, even QOS and display these metrics
2. Might be possible to derive PI (perfusion index) and PVI (perfusion variability) which can give you information relating to quality of signal and potentially, stress, dehydration, and vasoconstriction (due to say cold weather, caffeine, other health factors and drugs). Again, a $25 fingertip unit will give you PI.
I'm happy to collaborate and provide some reference materials. My background is a critical care RN and SAR EMT with a strong interest in physiological monitoring alarm management. I have some programming experience, but mostly relational database, no app dev.