Samsung is doubling down on the wearable revolution by introducing a new SoC called the Samsung Bio-Processor. The chip is intended to go into health oriented devices, and contains an array of sensors and an integrated micro-controller unit to allow it to do all the work without the need for external processing paths.
The Bio-Processor is armed with five “Analog Front Ends”, which is a fancy way of saying it has five types of sensors. This includes a bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA), photoplethysmogram (PPG), electrocardiogram (ECG), skin temperature, and galvanic skin response (GSR). It simply means that the chip is capable of measuring body fat, and skeletal muscle mass, heart rate, heart rhythm, skin temperature and stress levels. Although developers don’t have to put all of the capabilities to use.
Samsung hasn’t been clear about who this chip is aimed at. It is assumed that the company will be incorporating it into its wearable devices, which already try to focus on health monitoring as a feature. However, it isn’t too much of a stretch to assume that the Korean company is prepared to share the technology with third party manufacturers. Samsung is already manufacturing electronics for many other companies, including close rivals Apple.
The Samsung Bio-Processor is already in mass production, and is expected to be appearing in fitness and health devices in 2016. We guess this means that Samsung will have something to show off at CES 2016, or perhaps a new smartwatch to go along with the Samsung Galaxy S7.
[Source: Samsung]
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