Samsung Electronics Co. announced recently the production in quantity of their versatile biometric IC with which the Korean giant is responding to the new trend towards quantifiable health. The Bio‑Processor was conceived to enable rapid development of innovative portable systems for the daily monitoring of the health of users. Samsung says it is the first all in one IC solution for the health market. Apart from the Microcontroller itself, the power control circuit (PMIC), the digital signal processor (DSP) and the flash memory, no less than 5 analog front ends (AFE) are integrated on chip: a bioelectrical impedance sensor (BIA), a photoplethysmography (PPG) (a technique for non-invasive vascular function analysis), an electrocardiograph (ECG), a skin temperature sensor and a Galvanic Skin Response (skin conductance) sensor (GSR).

This allows measurement of biometric signals without external processing components, for monitoring notably the amount of body fat and muscle, the cardiac frequency and rhythm, the skin temperature and the level of stress. These data, once combined, allow many other uses.

Miniaturisation is also a given with the Bio Processor, which Samsung says occupies four times less space than competing systems. To allow users to evaluate and get up to speed with its new Bio processor, Samsung is offering a number of development/evaluation platforms for different applications: wristband, headband, stamp….