Flower Breath - Usage and Set-up

Requirements

  • iPhone, iPad, or iPod touch. (iOS 4.0 or later)
  • Headphones with microphone (included with iPhone)
  • Glue pads, like UHU's patafix®
  • A Flutter® VRP1

Attaching the microphone

  • Prepare the glue pads in a roll.
  • The glue paste should form a tight little room, the microphone must be isolated from the exterior.
  • The microphone is a little remarkable dot in the remote control. It should not touch the glue paste.
  • Fix on the Flutter® VRP1, avoid any contact between the microphone and the surface of the Flutter®

The proper operation of the application depends greatly on the quality of the sound recording. There may be other attachment schemas that are more efficient, do not hesitate to share your experiences.


Goals and settings

Frequencies

When you blow into the Flutter®, the metal ball it contains vibrates at a certain frequency. The frequency of an exercise is between 6 and 26 Hz, depending on your experience and medical recommendations, you will have more specific goals.
You are going to set the minimum and maximum frequencies where breathing is considered "good".

Icon "Calibration" on the menu:

Durations

Adjust the durations goals, the period during which the ball vibrates in the frequency interval of your choice.
The blow duration, between 1 and 20 seconds, is the period of "good" frequencies during a continous breath out.
The duration of exercise is the sum of all these "good times". When reached, the exercise is validated. Icon "Settings" ont the menu:

Profiles

The software allows multiple "profiles", if you want to keep differents goals depending on your physical condition or position of use. You will find them on the settings page.

Starting the application and exercises

The connection of headphones with a microphone starts the sound analysis, the software "listens" and recognizes the characteristic noise caused by vibration of the Flutter®. A noisy environment may confuse the software which will detect false blowings. A quiet place and a good fixation of the microphone will significantly improve the quality of the system.

When the software is started, the control area at the bottom of the screen is activated.

Control Area

  • The needle indicates in real-time the vibration frequency of the Flutter®. As with the calibration, the vertical indicates the frequency goal and the white lines the frequency interval where the exercise is considered "good", at this time the needle changes to green.
  • History represents the last blowings. The height of each bar is proportional to the total duration of a breath out. The green area is the period during which the frequency is considered "good". We get a star when the goal is reached.
  • Monitoring
    • The percentage (%)is activated only when an exercise is underway, it represents the percent completed of this year compared to the target.
    • The frequency (Hz) indicates the median frequency of the last breath out.
    • The duration (s) gives the length of the last expiration.
  • Menu button to return to the control page.

The exercises

Often associated with games, exercises are records of a series of breath out.
To finalize one exercise (one game), you must reach the duration selected in the settings.

To start an exercise

Go to Volcano Game, and start using the button on the interface.
Icon "Volcano Game" on the menu:

The exercises can be started and stopped by touching the control area.

Results

Icon "Results" on the menu:


Results are presented daily
As an experiment, you can send this results in spresdsheet format by mail.