You go to the doctors for a checkup – and the first thing that the nurse checks is your heart rate. The box to the right does the exact same – and connects to your iPad! The video (below) is this box in action connected to an oscilloscope. Check out that heart beat! This is an example of a biopotential amplifier that can measure activity from skeletal muscles and the heart.
We demo’d this system at an outreach event to 5th graders at the 4/5 Academy at Fifth Avenue in Decatur, Georgia (pictures below). The box was connected to a student and the iPad was connected to the classroom projector. The students could measure activity from flexed bicep muscles as well as sit still and see their heartbeat.
Here’s a video of it in action!