Samsung wants to make an impact in the quantified health space.
That's why the South Korean technology conglomerate has announced its Bio-Processor all-in-one logic chip aimed to pair with health-conscious wearable tech devices and expand their reach. Already in mass production, the Bio-Processor will be available in fitness/health wearables within the first half of 2016, according to Samsung.
The Bio-Processor integrates five Analog Front Ends (AFEs), including bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), photoplethysmogram (PPG), electrocardiogram (ECG), skin temperature, and galvanic skin response (GSR) into the single tiny chip.
Those AFEs work together to deliver well past the heart rate monitoring found as a standard on most wearable tech devices, measuring everything from body fat and skeletal muscle mass to heart rate, heart rhythm, skin temperature and stress level.
This is made possible by Samsung taking the aforementioned AFEs and adding microcontroller (MCU), power management integrated circuit (PMIC), digital signal processor (DSP), and eFlash memory components to the chip to process bio-metric signals.
"With improvements in smart, fitness devices and an increase in consumer health consciousness, more and more people are looking for ways to monitor various personal bio-data, or fitness data, to constantly manage their health" Ben K. Hur, vice president of marketing, System LSI business at Samsung, said in a company press release statement. "Samsung's Bio-Processor, which can process five different biometric signals, is the most versatile health and fitness monitoring chip available on the market today and is expected to open up many new health-based service options for our customers."
Now, this is a smarter way to stay healthier.
