SUPPORT

Kubios HRV Scientific is our full-featured HRV analysis software designed for research and professional use. Kubios HRV Scientific 4.0 was released on 30th Sep 2022 and replaced the Kubios HRV Premium software. What’s new in Kubios HRV Scientific compared to Kubios HRV Premium 3.5:

• Support for Kubios HRV mobile app measurements. The custom measurement mode of the mobile app offers an easy and cost-effective solution for recording scientifically valid HRV data. The app supports Bluetooth HR sensors providing beat-to-beat RR data, but when used together with Polar Sensors (H10 or Verity Sense) also raw ECG, PPG, and acceleration data can be recorded. Kubios HRV Scientific license enables you to store and access your custom measurement data.
• Training data analytics providing detailed information on cardiorespiratory function, training effect, metabolic rate and heart rate recovery (read more).
• ECG waveform analysis including a wide range of commonly used ECG waveform metrics such as QRS complex duration, QT and QTc interval times, and P, Q, R, S, and T wave amplitudes.
• Support for small animal HRV data, current version supports mice, rat and pig ECG and HRV recordings.

More information available at the product page: https://www.kubios.com/hrv-scientific/

Kubios HRV Scientific license is a 1-year subscription license, which allows you to use Kubios HRV Scientific on one computer (one active session at a time). When you purchase the software, you will receive a license key. In order to use the software, you need to log in with a Kubios account and activate the software using the license key, which will link your Kubios user account with the license. The custom measurement mode of the Kubios HRV mobile app is also enabled for the licensed user (one active custom measurement session allowed at a time).

You need a Kubios user account in order to use Kubios HRV Scientific. When you start the software for the first time, you need to login with a Kubios user account. If you don’t have a Kubios user account yet, you can register an account from the login screen. If you already have a license to Kubios HRV Scientific, you will be able to use the software after logging in. If you have purchased a license but the license has not been linked to your user account yet, you need to activate the software with the license key. The activation will link the license to your user account. Note that activation of Kubios HRV Scientific will also give you access to the custom measurement feature of Kubios HRV mobile application (you can store and access your measurements).

Kubios HRV Scientific (ver. 4.0) runs in Windows (64-bit Win 10 or 11) and macOS (Catalina, Big Sur or Monterey). Kubios HRV Scientific was developed using MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc.) and was compiled to a deployable standalone application with the Matlab Compiler. The MATLAB Runtime (MCR) is required for running Kubios HRV. The correct version of MCR is included in Windows and macOS installers (macOS installer downloads the MCR when necessary during the installation process). If you are using Linux, then you need to separately download and install also the MCR (download link is provided at download page) in order to be able to run Kubios HRV in your computer. The MCR is freely distributed along with Kubios HRV. In general, system requirements for running Kubios HRV software are similar to those of Matlab (see https://www.mathworks.com/support/sysreq/).

If you are not able to connect your Bluetooth HR sensor with the Kubios HRV app, please try the following steps:

• Make sure that you have allowed Kubios HRV app to use Location and that Location services are turned on in your phone. 
• If you are using a chest strap HR sensor, make sure to wear the strap around your chest to turn the sensor on. Moisten the electrodes if necessary.
• Make sure that the HR sensor is not connected to any other device or app. The sensor can be paired with several devices or apps at the same time, but typically the sensor can communicate only with one device or app at a time. 
• Unpair the HR sensor from your phone’s Bluetooth devices by going to Bluetooth connectivity, select your HR sensor (under paired devices) and choose Unpair. Open Kubios HRV app and try connecting to the sensor again.
• Clear Bluetooth cache. Go to Settings, Apps, select Bluetooth (you may need to choose Show System Processes), Storage and Clear cache. 

NOTE:  Kubios HRV app supports only Bluetooth (BLE) HR sensors, which measure and transmit beat-to-beat RR intervals to your phone. For example Apple watch and ANT+ sensors are not supported.

Kubios HRV app supports Bluetooth low energy (BLE) HR sensors, which measure and transmit beat-to-beat RR intervals to your phone. Since there are many HR sensors available in the market, we can not test them all and provide a complete list of compatible sensors. But you are welcome to check if your HR sensor can be connected to Kubios HRV app, even if it is not listed below.

In general, for accurate HRV analysis we recommend a chest strap HR sensor, which measures the electrical activity of the heart (i.e. electrocardiogram or ECG) and extracts RR interval values from it. Optical sensors, which are able to measure interbeat interval (IBI) data e.g. from the arm or finger, are convenient to use but their accuracy is not optimal. The beat detection inaccuracy in optical sensors is typically within ±5 ms, which may produce as high as  ±10 % errors in HRV parameters.

Recommended HR sensors:

• Polar H10 is a chest strap HR monitor which measures the electrical activity of the heart and provides reliable and accurate RR interval values. If you are using the Custom measurement feature, you will also have access to the raw ECG waveform and acceleration data from this sensor. 
• Polar Verity Sense is an optical armband HR sensor, which transmits IBI data to Kubios HRV app. If you are using the Custom measurement feature, you will also have access to the raw PPG waveform and acceleration data from this sensor. 

Other compatible HR sensors:

• Polar H7 (chest strap)
• CorSense by EliteHRV (optical sensor)
• Suunto Smart Belt (chest strap)
• Wahoo TICKR (chest strap)

Please note that Kubios HRV app does not at this time support ANT+ sensors.

Apple watch is not supported. Even though Apple advertises that the watch measures HRV, we cannot support the Apple watch because it does not transmit (in real time) RR intervals to third party applications.

The custom measurement mode in the Kubios HRV app runs in demo mode by default, which means that you can observe the data coming from your sensor but the data is not stored. In order to make custom measurements and store your measurement data in Kubios Cloud, you need a Kubios software license that supports this.

Kubios HRV mobile app measurements are supported in:

• Kubios HRV Scientific (www.kubios.com/hrv-scientific), a full featured HRV analysis software for scientific research and professional use. As a licensed user, you can use the custom measurement mode (1 active custom measurement session at a time) and sync your Kubios HRV app measurements into your computer using the Kubios Cloud Sync tool available in Kubios HRV Scientific.

Kubios HRV Standard is a freeware HRV analysis software with limited analysis features for personal non-commercial use only. Kubios HRV Standard computes standard HRV time-domain and frequency-domain analysis parameters for selected time periods and supports inter-beat-interval (IBI) data from HR monitors (Polar, Suunto and Garmin). More information available at the product page: https://www.kubios.com/hrv-standard/.

If you are looking for a powerful tool for HRV analysis, we recommend the Kubios HRV Scientific which is our full-featured HRV analysis software designed for research and professional use. More information available at the product page: https://www.kubios.com/hrv-scientific/.

Updates to Kubios HRV Premium have been discontinued since Kubios HRV Scientific 4.0 (a major upgrade to Kubios HRV Premium 3.5) was released on 30th Sep 2022. If you want to keep using our full featured HRV analysis software, please consider upgrading to Kubios HRV Scientific available at https://www.kubios.com/hrv-scientific/.

Kubios HRV Standard (ver. 3.5) runs in Windows (64-bit Win 7 SP1, 10 or 11) and Mac OS X (Mojave, Catalina or Big Sur). Kubios HRV was developed using MATLAB (The MathWorks, Inc.) and was compiled to a deployable standalone application with the Matlab Compiler. The MATLAB Runtime (MCR) is required for running Kubios HRV. The correct version of MCR is included in Windows and macOS installers (macOS installer downloads the MCR when necessary during the installation process). If you are using Linux, then you need to separately download and install also the MCR (download link is provided at download page) in order to be able to run Kubios HRV in your computer. The MCR is freely distributed along with Kubios HRV, and the same Runtime works with Standard and Premium versions of Kubios HRV software. System requirements for running Kubios HRV are similar to those of Matlab (see https://www.mathworks.com/support/sysreq/).

By upgrading to Kubios HRV Scientific, our full featured HRV analysis software desgined for research and professional use, you will be able to take advantage of

• Support for Kubios HRV mobile app measurements and several third-part HR, ECG, and PPG devices
• Accurate pre-processing features
• Analyze your HRV data at defined time intervals or assess HRV time trends
• Respiration rate (RESP) estimate for accurate RSA analysis or resonance frequency assessment
• ECG waveform analysis from defined time intervals
• Training data analytics with detailed performance metrics and heart rate recovery
• Extended reporting options

More information available at the product page: https://www.kubios.com/hrv-scientific/

Kubios HRV Premium license allows you to install and use Kubios HRV Premium on one computer. You must activate Kubios HRV Premium on the computer where you intend to use it. Although your license is tied to a single computer, the number of users on that computer is not limited. You can transfer the license to a new computer when necessary. You are allowed to make one license transfer per year during the license maintenance period. After your license maintenance has expired, you may not be able to transfer your license anymore.

If you are not able to activate the latest version of Kubios HRV Premium on your computer, this may be because

1. You have already spent your allowed number of license transfers
2. You are trying to activate a version which has been released after your license maintenance has expired.

Download and run the Kubios HRV installer for macOS from our download page. The installer will install Kubios HRV and the Matlab Runtime (NOTE: Matlab Runtime will be downloaded during the installation process only if it is not found from your computer) into separate folders under your Applications. To start Kubios HRV, you need to click the Kubios HRV application under the KubiosHRV# folder in your Applications. You can also find Kubios HRV application with Spotlight (click 🔍 on the upper-right corner of the menu bar or press Command+Space). NOTE: If you have an earlier version of Kubios HRV software installed in your Mac, we recommend that you uninstall the older version first (move the installed Kubios HRV and earlier version of Matlab Runtime to trash).

NOTE: If you are using a Mac with Apple Silicon processor, you need to install Rosetta (which enables Mac with Apple silicon to use apps built for a Mac with an Intel processor).

Kubios HRV Stadard and Premium are developed using MATLAB and compiled to standalone application using Matlab Compiler. To be able to run Kubios HRV, you must have the correct version of MATLAB Runtime (MCR) installed on your computer. Kubios HRV installers nowadays typically include the MCR installation. You can find the latests installers from our download page.

Kubios HRV Standard and Premium are developed using MATLAB (MathWorks Inc.) and requires the installation of the Matlab Compiler Runtime (MCR). The MCR is a standalone set of shared libraries that enables the execution of compiled MATLAB applications. Starting of the MCR takes roughly the same time as starting MATLAB. This can be anything from 5 seconds to 30 seconds depending on the speed of your computer.

Polar Flow export function available in Kubios HRV Premium (ver. 3.2 or higher) gives you access to RR (inter-beat interval) data from all Polar Flow compatible Polar watches when using them with H6, H7 or H10 heart rate sensor. NOTE: Measurements made using the Polar Beat app do not include RR data when exported from Flow. Also, when using wrist-HR measurement of your watch or the optical OH1 sensor, RR data is not available from Flow.

Regarding the Polar Flow export you should also remember that

1. Only measurements made after linking your Polar Flow with Kubios HRV Premium are accessible
2. You can export each measurement only once, thus remember to make backup copies of the exported files.

In Garmin watches, you may need to enable HRV recording in order to automatically have HRV (beat-to-beat RR interval) data in the FIT-files. In some Garmin models you can turn HRV recording on from the device menu (check user manual). Otherwise, you can turn HRV recording on manually by following the instructions given here.