MediaTek has just announced a new smartphone biosensor module that can monitor 6 different health metrics. In addition to being able to measure a user's heart rate — which can honestly be done on any smartphone with a rear camera and flash — the MediaTek Sensio MT6381 can track heart rate variability, blood pressure, peripheral oxygen saturation (SpO2), electrocardiography (ECG), and photoplethysmography (PPG). MediaTek hopes that manufacturers will begin to integrate Sensio into their devices in the future.

The Sensio module works using an integration of hardware and software in order to measure all these health data in about 60 seconds, MediaTek claims. These components, including a red and infrared LED pair, an I2C /SPI digital interface, and a total external BOM, work in conjunction to provide accurate reading back to the user. For example, in order to register ECG and PPG metrics, a user must touch two sensors simultaneously with both hands so that a closed loop passing through the heart is created.

One of the main advantages MediaTek is touting on the MT6381 is its high customizability, meaning that manufacturers should have the flexibility of embedding the module into a variety of smartphones and be able to provide support for third-party add-ons. The MediaTek Sensio will be available in early 2018.

Source: MediaTek (1), (2)