Samsung Electronics, the Korean-based world leader in advanced semiconductor technology, has set early 2016 as the date for the marketing of a new chip. The chip is called the Bio-Processor and it is designed to go into wearables. This is no ordinary chip. Besides being tiny, it has the ability to oversee bioelectrical impedance analysis, photoplethysmogram, electrocardiogram, skin temperature and galvanic skin response.
Devices with this chip installed will be capable of simultaneously tracking changes in body fat, skeletal muscle mass, heart rate and rhythm, skin temperature and stress, according to Fierce Biotech IT writer Nick Paul Taylor. “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, ” said Ben Hur, a vice president of marketing at Samsung.
While Samsung plans to have its own wearables on the market within a few months, the company also is expecting that other manufacturers will create their own wearable devices taking advantage of the Bio-Processor’s tiny size and capabilities.
Samsung has put together for potential clients examples of how the chip can fit into wristbands, patches and other types of wearables. The designs, according to Taylor, showcase Samsung’s belief that by building multiple capabilities into one chip, it can enable the creation of smaller devices.
“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” said Hur. The Samsung Bio-Processor is currently in mass production and the company reports that it will be available in fitness/health devices within the first half of 2016.
