Pulse Oximeters - Now with 100% more Bloop!

Pushing the power button again may flip the display so the wearer can more easily read the values. (At least that’s what happens on mine)

Johnathan Chamberlain

Dude. Why the warning in the beginning? I feel it's debasing to yourself. Simply "this isn't medical advice, just how it works" would have sufficed. It's a good enough warning and if people need more than that they don't deserve to watch your channel.

I _absolutely_ loved the bloopers. Really well done! de da da daaaahhhh...

Raphaël

Hi there!

Michael Dunn

I loved it. <3

I remember one of the first really interesting apps available for the iPhone 4 was an instant heart rate monitor which used the camera flash to light up your finger, and it was able to use the camera to read a pulse (no O2 saturation readings though). You had to keep your finger really super still or it would throw off the reading, but it worked. I always thought that was pretty cool. These apps are still available, might be a good reference so viewers can try the concept in action themselves.

TIL lenses aren't equipment. Thanks!

Thanks for adding the bloopers back, I didn't get to see the version without, but I'm sure it would have left me feeling incomplete. As someone else posted above, it's a great decompress from the thinking content. Both are excellent... all things in balance. Thanks again for what you do for us Alec.

Kevin Tessner

I prefer it with the bloopers. Well done. Informative, respectful, entertaining.

Myron Dietz

Techmoan posted a video recently about Pulse Oximeters and his experiences with Sleep apnoea, and got nothing but armchair experts telling him it was all wrong. He was posting nothing more than an opinion piece really. He resorted to pulling the video. So I get Alec's view on this. Entirely fair I think.

David Rickard

I've got a couple of these. If you buy things like this from China, always buy two. One is sure to break quickly... What I'm curious about it how my Fitbit measures O2 Sat (of sorts) using a LED and sensor on one side of your wrist. One clue is that it only works at night, in the dark.

Michael Steeves

Thanks Alec, the video came out very nicely! The blood-gas measurement expert in me says it's good :-)

MrHammond

I don't think that is much of a problem, if your value is that low, the alarm bell should be ringing anyway!

MrHammond

Because of the way the calibration curve was calculated, pulse oximeters should be considered unreliable below 70% SpO2. https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S095461111300053X

Martin Porcheron

I hate all this disclaiming stuff. You’re explaining how stuff works. Just because you told me how jukeboxes work I don’t go around and buy one or think that you know what kind of music I might like. If I want medical advice I go to a doctor and not some YouTube channel explaining technology. I get that you’re just trying to be safe against lawyers and stuff but still.. people should use their common sense more. Anyway: great video, as always. :)

Marc Weinreich

An additional thought in general to your bloopers. Your videos are exciting and full of information and I personally appreciate the jazz and bloopers at the end. It is a relaxing phase in which I can come back down. It probably sounds strange, but I also hate it when the end credits of a movie are cut away. This is done by broadcasters so that you are immediately sucked into the next topic instead of processing shortly what you just experienced.

Hi there! I do like the bloopers, and I think you did a great job on this one.

Mark J. Blair

Maybe instead of the bloopers, you might want to add that you can use an app on your phone (both major phone Operating Systems) that can show you something similar to that doodad that you have there.

I don't always watch the bloopers, but I do feel like the video is not really over until I see which relevant adverb you picked to describe the smooth jazz in the closed captions....

Keith Hertzer

I work as a respiratory therapist (the dude who runs ventilators, bipaps, cpaps, draws afformentioned ABGs), and you got everything basically spot on. For starters, if someone has fingernail polish on and the pulse ox won't read, we rotate it 90° and it generally works ok. There are also forhead probes and nasal probe which do not rely on light passing through, but rather reflection. And methoglobanemia can cause errant readings too. And last big thing I noticed, they are not always accurate in everybody; especially people with high heart rates and darker skin. Another thing we use them for is to compare against an EKG as a very quick and dirty deyerminant if someone slipped into a PEA (pulseless electrical activity) cardiac arrest, as there usually isn't someone sitting there taking their pulse 24/7 whereas we can see these on an outside central monitor. Usually the pulse ox probe just fell off the finger, but nonetheless, it's a good first indicator in a patient that doesn't pick at things that's at risk...

I have to say that was pretty interesting. My wife is a respiratory therapist so there's a couple of these kicking around the house. I appreciate the deep dive into how these things work.

David LeBlanc

I can understand why you have them yet the "don't rush to buy one" and the reference to the current price increase seem ... out of place. I think of these as timeless "how stuff works" pieces. In the end don't listen to me, you should do it as you feel because no matter what you do, someone will complain about the opposite. Devil advocate: "when you say don't rush to buy one, I just hear don't buy them they are worthless", and "when you say these are amazing, I just hear I should really buy one at any price". People have a tendency to filter whatever argument just floats their boats, and ignore the rest.

Raphaël

LOL! "*I'm* just telling you how they work." hahaha, classic.

Spectre

"based on the concept of how blood reflects red light while absorbing green light" ... from https://www.ledinside.com/news/2015/4/how_leds_in_apple_watch_heart_sensor_work

Raphaël

In one of the HQ-making videos, we can see he has a track slider with a camera mount. I for one would really like to see some "4th wall" views where we see the device in action too. I enjoy seeing the rest of the studio.

Raphaël

Can we have a compromise? Your jazz-ending is a staple, and it's a good place for the patreon thanks line and the scrolling wall, which we can all agree is good for you. It can be done _without_ bloopers if you don't feel it for this video.

Raphaël

The video is great, thank you and I didn’t realise there were two LEDs! However, bloopers or not, I miss the end music. I’m sure you’ve used a quick edit of it in the past?

Kirk Northrop

Great video, and kudos on the excellent production values on such a quickly produced video! Out of curiosity, how did you pull off the slow lateral tracking shot of the oximeter on your finger at 5:50 or so? At first it looked like a pan in post but nope, parallax, so the camera was moving.

Anonymous

Now I'm curious about how the green led in my watch measures that from my wrist, great video!

Yes. By NOT putting in the smooth jazz and bloopers like you've done on almost every other video, you are giving the idea that you WOULD tell everyone to buy one if there weren't these pesky lawyers around to sue you into the sub-basement. I don't know who suggested this, but it was probably the same guy who suggested to Discord not to have the cutesy sayings on the startup icon. Boo. This technology is neat. You put in enough disclaimers to CYA. I'm 63, and my doctor has me use one of these daily. I would not think you were being insensitive by having the smooth jazz and bloopers. You could always pack extra disclaimers into the ending credits close captioning. Being fun does not prevent serious topics. Bring back the bloopers! :-) Or not, it's your channel.

Mike Bird

I have one of these devices, and it did cross my mind to wonder how they could measure something like this without even poking your finger. Two equations + two unknowns! That's science and math! Plus the magic part about needing to take the pulse. This is even cooler than the rice cooker!

Agreed at least make bloopers for patreons.... That ending was sho....... well, maybe abru........ just not the jazz that is the trademark of your channel!

Christopher Bassett

Who doesn't like bloopers? I really disagree, and like he said, make them for patreons...

Why not do a blooper cut just for Patreon?

V.E. Griffith

That was totally the perfect Technology Connections ending! Meaning your wording felt perfect lol.

Jurassic_Jacob

The company I work for creates an instrument that works in a very similar way, only it tests dissolved oxygen in water using alternating red and blue LEDs and some very precise light filters. Because oxygen reflects light of very specific wavelengths, one LED us used to set a baseline, and the second reflects and the difference is the amount of O2 dissolved in the water. Pretty cool stuff if I say so myself. I helped develop the water proof casing on the newer generation unit which is *way* smaller then our first gen. We nicknamed the old one the Torpedo, and it was at least a foot long and full of some complicated optics. Now with LEDs precise and powerful enough, it’s more the size of a very fat magic marker.

Richard Stifle

Wait, you're not a health professional!? How dare you....joke aside, great video. At no point I thought you were covid19 explicit. I really enjoyed it. Succinct, informative and as always, entertaining (yes, you are always informative, too). Thanks for producing this.

Typos! I cannot escape them!

Technology Connections

Very cool and very groovy stuff. Mr. Thermistor, wasn't that an 80s pop group? And I saw that you had spelled it theremistor at about 3:00.

Mark Hesse

I had a lot of thoughts formed in my head before I asked for your thoughts, and I started writing them down the moment I did. If I know what I want to say, script writing can be incredibly fast! And as far as the technical aspects of the video, it was really simple. Not a lot to show, so B-roll was a breeze!

Technology Connections

Did you just write the entire thing and then ask if it was in bad form before posting this? Because that’s the only way I can fathom being able to turn around a video as well-thought-through as this in that short of a time. Please don’t misinterpret this as me being sassy, I just couldn’t do this myself!

Sean Hearrell

FWIW, in addition to it being fascinating (as always), I thought the subject matter was handled incredibly well. Really glad you decided to make this video, thank you!

Tytyty

Makes perfect sense and completely reasonable decision. Besides I support your videos to support you, not to see my name (though admittedly it is kinda cool heh). 😊

Peter Membrey