Vivoactive Respiration Rate - So inaccurate it cant be used

I doubt that the engineering team is lazy. This is the level the technology is at, and the marketing department has over sold it. With the current sensors and algorithms, the breathing rate and oxygen levels are mostly guessing. Even wrist heart rate has an element of guessing. It is the same for other brands. 

I completely agree. I've had my Venu 2 for a week and it completely ignores my breathing rates.

You should contact them direct and report it. My experience is they will blame your breathing pattern rather then their software but if enough people tell them, they may actually test it one day and realise what they are selling. You would think it is simple to understand, you time your breathing under conditions where it is regular, and the watch should detect a similar result, but as you are seeing, they don't. Most times by a very significant margin. Sure, it detects increases and decreases in respiration rate when exercising, but their actual readings are completely wrong. 

So send them a technical request based on your findings and see what comes back. After all, you paid for the feature so they should deliver as advertised.

I think I shall, actually.  I got mine from John Lewis two weeks ago (I'm hoping they'll let me return it). The respiration function absolutely does NOT work.

I'm not sure there *is* a problem though.

From Firstbeat analytics : 

"Each breath you take is coded into your heart rate variability (HRV). The length of time between consecutive heartbeats shortens slightly as you inhale and lengthens as you exhale."

It also warns that this change can be really quick and the quality of the measurement depends on the quality of the HR measurement, so when doing activities a chest monitor will be more precise.

For the case of meditation, usually the breath are pretty different than normal (longer inspiration and longer exhalation). Perhaps this means that the change in HR becomes noisier? As in, if you breath in for 5 second, pause 5 second, then breath out for 5 seconds, perhaps the *slight* changes occuring once every 5-10 second (not sure how your hr is affected while pausing) are just too far apart to be noticible as a respiration?

When your respiration slows down, usually it's not because you inhale/exhale slower, but because you take a breath less often. So the hr readings would differ from the readings of meditation breathing. Additionally, this usually lower your oxygens level and could be noticable through that vital as well.

Contrary to other users here, it does register higher and lower rates than 10-14 brm. I have a low rate of 8-10 and a high rate of 16-22 daily, some days it went down to 6 (without the breathing exercises). So idk that it would show "normal" values if someone had respiratory problems, but in any case, they do warn this isn't for medical use.

For the breathing exercises though, it seems to just assume you're following the script. But maybe like the other activities, actually doing it might improve accuracy? But it's still weird that it doesn't seem to really measure your breath for that one (although I don't always get the same score when I do it, varies between 4 and 6, and seems to match whether I can follow or not, but ignore it also gives 4 so ????).

Hi, mine too goes down to 6 during the night for a bit most nights and I don't do any breathing exercises or meditation so it's got me a bit worried! Did you look into your own low brpm? 

Laughably inaccurate. I have the same results with a top-of-the-line Epix Gen 2. Garmin really has shirked its duty as the leading fitness wearable company outside Apple with these types of inaccurate features and "Unproductive" status on training, which is not only insulting yet also inaccurate when you consider VO2 Max can vary based on weather conditions. Saying a run or training session or program is inaccurate is like saying you would be better off not going on that last run. Everyone says Polar has better algorithms. I may check them out.

I have the same issue when doing exercises, when on my bike I get 30-40 bpm even though I do breathe exercise at 15-20 bpm depending on intensity.

I always have 13/14 bpm during inactivity which is incorrect as well, seems like it just shows “most likely rate based on statistics” and not measure anything.

I have the same issue when doing exercises, when on my bike I get 30-40 bpm even though I do breathe exercise at 15-20 bpm depending on intensity.

I always have 13/14 bpm during inactivity which is incorrect as well, seems like it just shows “most likely rate based on statistics” and not measure anything.