MediaTek Launches 6-in-1 Biosensor for Smartphones | Hacker News Reader

MediaTek Launches 6-in-1 Biosensor for Smartphones

anandtech.com

78 pointswalterbell22 comments

I expect these to show up in cheap/unbranded Chinese phones first, where for the longest time you could get one with a full complement of sensors, removable storage, dual SIM, removable battery, and other useful functionality like a headphone jack, for a fraction of the price of the bigger brands --- some with even fewer features. They were basically all cosmetic variations on the Mediatek reference design.

Now it seems even those "generic" brands are trying to "differentiate" by removing features, but it's unlikely they would try to do that with combo sensor modules like this.

Wearable health monitors are really the future.

It's a marketer's dream: arrhythmia causes young healthy people sometimes suddenly drop dead without any prior symptoms. It happened to Sheryl Sandberg's husband. Sudden cardiac death kills 600,000 people per year with 50% having no prior cardiac disease. [1]

Hopefully the Apple Heart Study turns out to allow early detection of arrhythmia. Apple will end up selling millions of watches based on people's (myself included) mildly irrational fears.

[1] ttp://www.clevelandclinicmeded.com/medicalpubs/diseasemanagement/cardiology/cardiac-arrhythmias/

No, Apple won't, at least not until I can use their watch without having to own the rest of their suite of products.

Fitbit, on the other hand, has no choice but to adapt to survive. They may not be the leading edge, but they'll sell more units than Apple.

> Fitbit, on the other hand, has no choice but to adapt to survive. They may not be the leading edge, but they'll sell more units than Apple.

This presupposes that Fitbit will survive, which is not at all a given. The much more likely possibility is that they just go out of business, which is the usual fate of single-device companies when Apple enters their market (Nokia, Pebble, etc.)

I'm curious when you expect Fitbit's turnaround to occur. The market sure doesn't seem to like their odds against the Apple Watch: https://imgur.com/a/LeEa6

Fitbit should survive so long as there are people like myself who prefer mechanical watches. And with vintage watches having a renaissance in the last few years the number of people going mechanical could increase.

And so there is a market for health devices that are single purpose just focusing on health. Problem of course is they are susceptible to cheap, Chinese based entrants.

Fitbit is actually worse than Apple.

On iOS all health data should be stored in HealthKit. It's open, secure and allows for data exchange between applications. Every other app I use works with it except Fitbit which sees health data as their asset rather than something belonging to the users.

If Fitbit wanted to prevent users from storing their data in HealthKit, wouldn't it forbid 3rd party apps that do it, like Sync Solver and Power Sync, from using the API?

You can't get all data via the API, it's severely limited.

I went for a Garmin instead.

The thing with sudden cardiac death and arrhythmias is that the first sign/symptom is often sudden cardiac death, so unless you have a defib linked into it it isn’t going to actually stop your sudden cardiac death.

My comment history is negative on these types of sensors, I still feel they are gimmicky. For example this chip talks about capacity to measure blood pressure variability but there is no way to measure blood pressure without a cuff (or invasive monitoring) so I’m still trying to imagine the ‘all in one’ fitness device this is meant for

What are the benefits of having these features on a chip versus handling via software and the regular CPU chip? The measurement of time series data does not seem computationally intensive, but the analysis of the data could be.

This is just a chip with the analog functionality, AFAIK the analysis is still done in software.

Is there any available data on how blood pressure is sensed with these devices?

"The module uses light emitting diodes (LEDs) in conjunction with a light sensitive sensor to measure the absorption of red and infrared light by the user’s fingertips. "

see https://www.mediatek.com/features/sensio-biosensor-module

A bit deeper, the PPG (photoplethysmogram) signal is measured by the user holding sensors on the phone with both hands. Using math I don't understand, the chip can then calculate a fairly accurate (within a couple mmHg) blood pressure. There are a couple papers describing the method on the first page of this search:

https://encrypted.google.com/search?{google:acceptedSuggesti...

Thanks - that's impressive agreement:

https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4986809/figure/...

I wonder whether this HR sensor would be any different from the Fitbit sensor which causes me pain in about 30 minutes of wearing.

I belong to the select group of people who's having issues with HR sensors on their skin.

I've documented my case here - https://abishekmuthian.com/my-experience-with-fitbit-charge-...

Its psychosomatic. Nothing a heart rate sensor does (either blinking lights) or by completion of a passive circuit, will disturb the body. I am so confident I encourage you to have a friend place the watch when on, versus off, on your back. You wont be able to discern the difference. Please see a mental health expert. My brother has the same neuerosis and it doesn't need to be a handicap, it doesn't need to turn you into a conspiracy theorist.

This is one of the reasons I wrote about, either you genuinely believe that all those who are having issues with the HR are due to mental illness or you have a vested interested in deliberately claiming so.

I have no vested interest other than helping a fellow human being. My brother has the same nuerosis and has seen benefits from seeing a psychiatrist. I would suggest you do the same. It is almost impossible to disbelieve your own intuition but believe me, there is nothing that these HR sensors do that would cause a symptomatic response by your body. Do the test I suggested..be scientific. The mind is hard to deny so use the scientific method. Good luck friend.

Would be interesting to do a blind test, where you don’t know if the HR monitor is on or off.

Interesting, would try. But there are number of people who claim to have woke up in the middle of the night with pain & numbness.

video: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pb6orp60L8M ( 2.44m )

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