Patent ID: 8260405

Claim:
A monitoring apparatus for monitoring a user's heart rate and/or heart rate variation, the apparatus comprising: an oscillator which generates an oscillating signal; first and second capacitor electrodes, the first electrode is connected to said oscillator, the capacitor electrodes being arranged to be mounted to capacitively couple with different surface parts of a blood carrying body part of a person, such that an electrical capacitance between the electrodes across the body part between the electrodes changes in response to blood pressure pulses of blood running through the capacitively coupled body part; a data processor connected to said oscillator and said second electrode, the processor being programmed to determine a heart rate or heart rate variation from changes in the capacitance of the capacitively coupled electrodes and body part; and an output device connected to the processor to provide an auditory and/or visual output indicative of the heart rate or the heart rate variation.