Iron Man Arc Reactor Mirrors Your Heartbeat

There are a wide range of Iron Man arc reactors out there that look cool, and even realistic… or realistic-look for something entirely fictional, you might say. Arpan Mondal, however, wanted to build something more, and while his device won’t protect your heart with electromagnets, it does pulse in sync with your actual heartbeat.

This feat is accomplished with a heartbeat sensor that attaches to a wearer’s finger, along with a NodeMCU ESP8266-based board. When the setup detects a heartbeat, LEDs inside the arc reactor activate in response, creating a fun effect that’s actually based in reality. The unit is powered by a 3.7V LiPo and charging circuit that make it entirely portable.

The roughly triangular device could be 3D-printed quite easily, but as Mondal doesn’t have one, it’s hand-made of an easily cut material called Sunboard. Whether you want to go that way, or model/find and print your own is up to you, but it’s a neat design if you’d like to pursue such a build, or create something similar yourself. Notable here is that the code for the device isn’t listed per se, but is one of the “PulseSensor playground” example libraries.

You can see the device blinking away in the video above, and if you have a wire long enough for the pulse sensor, it’d be possible to wear it under your shirt for a very interesting effect.