PineTime – OpenSeizureDetector

PineTime Watch Performance

We have been using the low cost (~£35) PineTime watch for our ‘Production’ seizure detector for our son for over 1 year now. The report below summarises our experiences and our real-world observed seizure detection reliability.

See: http://www.openseizuredetector.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/07/Seizure_Analysis.pdf for details

The summary for those who don’t want to read the whole thing is:

The PineTime watch has proven to be reliable (after initial teething troubles with connection reliability with one particular phone/watch combination).
The real-world seizure detection reliability based on movement detection is good with 85% detection reliability for tonic-clonic seizures, which is comparable to that observed for Garmin devices.
The heart rate alarm function has not been tested, but it is expected that the PineTime performance will not be as good as for Garmin devices.
False alarm rate remains high (of the order 2 false alarms per day), but this is comparable to that observed with Garmin watches.

Based on this, I would recommend that new users try PineTime first, as it is much cheaper than a Garmin watch, and only move to Garmin if they need heart rate alarms. If you are interested in trying it, please see the installation instructions here: https://openseizuredetector.github.io/pages-user/pine-time-installation.html

Graham (graham@openseizuredetector.org.uk)

Release of Version 4.2.11 of OpenSeizureDetector

Version 4.2.11 of the OpenSeizureDetector Android App should soon be available for all users to upgrade on the Google Play Store.

This release fixes a few issues reported by users over the last few months. The main changes are:

Adds support for the low cost PineTime watch for all users.
Addition of a ‘Flap’ detector which will alarm on low frequency, high amplitude movements which our Son has been doing during his partial seizures lately – that has improved our overall seizure detection reliability to well over 80%, including the partial seizures, which is very good. Note though that it will increase false alarms, so is probably only suitable for night time use.
Fixed an issue where the Data Sharing system was using a lot of data.
Added a user-selectable delay before sending an SMS alert, so the user has more chance of catching false alarms before the alert is sent.
Added a ‘Send False Alarm Notification’ menu item so the user can easily notify carers that a notification was a false alarm.

Please let me know if you have any issues with the new version.

Thanks
Graham (graham@openseizuredetector.org.uk)

V4.2.6 Available for Beta Testers

V4.2.6 of the OpenSeizureDetector Android App is now available for beta testing. It should be available on Play Store in a day or so (after Google have reviewed it), or it is available here now.

The main changes are:

Fixed problem with notifications in Android 13
Improved start-up checks for permissions
Improved system re-start after changing settings (but still not perfect!) – use the new ‘BLE2’ data source for PineTime and BangleJS watches.
Disabled the CNN algorithm by default as it is causing some false alarms (Issue #170)
Added watch signal strength history graph and watch battery history graph to main activity (only works for the new BLE2 data source with PineTime and BangleJS watches).
Added watch data to the system screen of main activity.
Support for V2.0 and higher of the Garmin Watch App (to reduce battery consumption – thanks to @pmithrandir for making a lot of improvements to the Garmin watch app.

Users of Garmin watches should not see any detrimental effects of this release – please let me know if you do.

Infinitime and BangleJS users should see the system shutdown behave better and give less issues with the app screen flashing between OK and FAULT after changing settings etc.

Please feed back experiences of using this version so we can decide what else to change before we make this the main relase for everyone.

Thanks
Graham (graham@openseizuredetector.org.uk)

V4.2.4 Available on Play Store for Beta Testers

V4.2.4 should be available on play store in a few hours if you are signed up as a Beta tester.

The only change in this version is in response to a user who has been testing PineTime – he found that sometimes it crashes without issuing FAULT beeps.

This version should enter a FAULT condition and emit fault ‘pip’ sounds rather than crashing silently.

Please try this version out, especially if you are trying out PineTime, and report any issues.

Thanks

Graham (graham@openseizuredetector.org.uk)

Version 4.2.2 Available for Beta Testing

Thank you to to those users who have been testing V4.2.1 before general release.

A user has spotted that the latest version of the PineTime firmware (V0.5) displays an error message on the screen when using V4.2.1 of the Android App. V4.2.2 adds support for sending the seizure detector status (OK, WARNING, ALARM) back to the watch for display on the PineTime watch, which fixes this issue.

It should be available for beta testers to upgrade in a few hours once it is approved by Google.

If there are any issues, please let me know (graham@openseizuredetector.org.uk, or raise an issue on our bug tracker).

Version 4.2.1 Available for Beta Testing

Version 4.2.1 of the OpenSeizureDetector Android app should be available to those of you who are signed up for beta testing shortly.

The two main changes in this version are introduction of support for the low-cost PineTime watch as a data source (by selecting the Bluetooth Data Source in the app settings), and introduces a simplified user interface as shown below. The bottom half of the screen can be swiped to show different screens of information.

If you are an existing user, this version should function exactly the same as the current one (but with some minor stability issues fixed). Please let me know if you find any new issues that should be fixed before we make this available to all users.

If you would like to help by beta testing this version, please sign up for beta releases here: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=uk.org.openseizuredetector.

In addition to this release of the Android app, there is also a new version 1.4.1 of the Garmin watch app available. This version adds a menu to the watch app to allow the user to select the following:

How the wearer is notified of alarms (watch lighting up, buzzing etc.)
Enable ‘Ben Mode’ which makes the app more difficult to shut down accidentally (for users who tend to fiddle with their watches!).
Disable oxygen saturation monitoring to save battery life.
Enable a ‘Low Data Mode’ to try to improve the connection reliability for the VenuSQ watches, as Garmin have still not fixed the connection reliability issue that appeared last year.

If you have any problems with these versions please raise an issue in the Github bug tracker (Android App, Garmin Watch App), or email graham@openseizuredetector.org.uk.

I would also like to thank a number of contributors who have helped with these new versions: pmithrandir (garmin watch app updates), AroonPro (Android App, especially the heart rate trend graph), Rennard (Android App bluetooth data source to support PineTime).

Thanks, Graham.

PineTime Watch Support

I have been testing OpenSeizureDetector on the low cost PineTime watch and at least one user has been trying out the BangleJS2 watch.

I have made a comparison of the current state of PineTime and BangleJS2 support compared to Garmin in a table in a Github Discussion here.

The PineTime is looking the most promising at the moment – working well for both accelerometer and heart rate data, and it seems to have good bluetooth connection reliability.

My intention is to release an updated version of the OpenSeizureDetector Android App for beta testing in the next couple of weeks, which will add support for these devices. I’ll be keen to know from beta testers whether the changes have affected their normal use of the Garmin devices (there should be no change). I’ll also be looking for some people to try out the PineTime device and provide feedback on their experiences using it.

If you would like any more information (or to try it out before official release) please get in touch (graham@openseizuredetector.org.uk)

Graham

OpenSeizureDetector on a £35 Smart Watch?

One of my main objectives for this project has been to make seizure detector systems available at low cost so people on low incomes can afford it if they want it. So it has been a bit disappointing that we have been tied to Garmin watches for so long (Since Fitbit bought and discontinued Pebble watches).

The Garmin watches are very good, but they are expensive, and we are tied to using their software and as we have seen recently they break it sometimes with software updates.

So over Christmas I have been concentrating on getting OpenSeizureDetector to work on lower cost devices – I did a post in December about BangleJS, which costs around £77, so about half the cost of a compatible Garmin watch.

Since then I have been working on PineTime, which costs about £35 delivered to the UK. I have been using the Open Source InfiniTime firmware and developing it to supply the data needed by OpenSeizureDetector. It now seems to be working, but needs some more testing to see if there is any unusual behaviour to be sorted, but it is looking very promising to be a seizure detector for those who can not afford an Embrace or other commercial system.

Please contact graham@openseizuredetector.org.uk with any questions.