I fixed an electronic stethoscope project then tried it. My hearbeat was about 60 times per minute but my heartbeat sounded like Ka-BOOM, Ka-BOOM, Ka-BOOM etc. at a frequency of about 16Hz. What was vibrating at 16Hz??
My electret mic has no resonance and the flexible housing it was mounted in has no resonance. The volume of the mic housing was small so if it was resonant it would be at a high frequency. Maybe the skin on my chest and beneath the mic housing was vibrated at 16Hz by each heartbeat??
But PPG is optical sensing of blood volume or color changes in a blood vessel caused by heartbeats.
I recently had a medical test and a PPG sensor was placed on my finger. I heard the machine make a beat with each heartbeat BUT then a pause without a beat fairly frequently. I was scared that my heart was failing then I heard the beats and pauses from other people in the clinic.
Why did it frequently miss a heartbeat??