Taiwanese Chipset maker company MediaTek on Thursday announced its new biosensor module for monitoring health. The module which is named as Sensio can monitor 6 different health parameters i.e. heart rate, blood pressure, heart rate variability, SpO2, ECG and PPG. The most noticeable thing of Sensio is that it can deliver the complete 6-point data to the user in just 60 seconds.
Dr. Yenchi Lee, a senior director of Product Marketing for MediaTek’s wireless business said that “Giving people the power to access their health information with a smartphone is a major step in making the world a healthier place”. He further added that “With our MediaTek Sensio biosensor module and software, developers and device makers have a powerful, embedded health monitoring solution that delivers heart and fitness information in around 60 seconds.”
How the Module Works?
As per the company this module is highly customizable and can be easily embedded into smartphones by their manufacturers. Regarding the working the company further clarified that LEDs (light emitting diodes) are used along with light sensitive sensor for measuring red and infrared light absorption by the fingertips of the user.
One of the most striking thing which we find in Sensio is its functionality to measure even ECG and PPG levels, which till date cannot be found in any smartphone. When a user touches the device sensors and electrodes with his fingertips Sensio makes a closed loop between the heart and biosensor and helping in getting the data for ECG and PPG.
The company said that Sensio provides the data for the following 6 health readings:
Heart-rate – MediaTek Sensio measures heart beats per minute.
Heart-Rate Variability – MediaTek Sensio measures variation in the time between heartbeats.
Blood Pressure Trends – MediaTek Sensio measures blood pressure trends so users can see a range of data over a period of time.
Peripheral Oxygen Saturation (SpO2) – MediaTek Sensio measures the amount of oxygen in the blood.
Electrocardiography (ECG) – MediaTek Sensio measures the electrical activity of the heart over a period of time and displays it in graph form.
Photoplethysmography (PPG) – MediaTek Sensio measures the change in volume of blood.
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Components Included:
This all in one package of MediaTek Sensio MT6381 compromises of integrated R and IR LEDs for reflective PPG measurement + 1-channel ECG analog front-end. Talking about components the Sensio also includes compact 6.8 mm x 4.93 mm x 1.2 mm OLGA 22-pin package along with total external BOM of 4 caps + 2 electrodes and I2C /SPI digital interface.
MediaTek Sensio which initially looking quite promising is going to hit the market by the starting of 2018.