A wireless heart rate monitor powered by Raspberry Pi and Wi-Fi - how it works

Researchers at UC developed Pulse-Fi, a wireless heart rate monitoring system using Wi-Fi signals to detect heartbeats without contact. The system analyzes how heartbeats affect Wi-Fi's Channel State Information and processes data through neural networks. Using affordable hardware like ESP-32 modules and Raspberry Pi 4B, Pulse-Fi achieved high accuracy - 99.38% with ESP-32 and 99.81% with Raspberry Pi compared to traditional methods. This innovation could transform medical and fitness applications by enabling continuous, non-intrusive heart monitoring using common components.