Samsung Unveils New Bio-Processor For Fitness Wearables

The wearable device market has exploded over the past couple of years, and Samsung now wants a bigger piece of it.

The tech giant on Tuesday introduced a new chip dubbed the Samsung Bio-Processor, designed for health-oriented wearables. Now in mass production, the all-in-one chip can process numerous "biometric signals" without the need for any external processing parts. Aside from just heart rate, it can measure body fat, skeletal muscle mass, heart rhythm, skin temperature, and stress level.


It's also pretty tiny, which is a good thing when it comes to wearable technology. Samsung said it's about a quarter of the total combined size of its discrete parts, making it "ideal for small wearables, offering a bounty of options when designing new devices."

The company said customers today want their fitness gadgets to do more than just monitor heart rate.

"With improvements in smart, fitness devices and an increase in consumer health consciousness, more and more people are looking for ways to monitor various personal [biometric] data, or fitness data, to constantly manage their health" Ben K. Hur, vice president of marketing for Samsung's System LSI business, said in a statement. "Samsung's Bio-Processor… is the most versatile health and fitness monitoring chip available on the market today and is expected to open up many new health-based service options for our customers."

Samsung said its Bio-Processor will be available in fitness and health devices within the first half of 2016.
Meanwhile, IDC in September predicted that worldwide wearable device shipments will reach 76.1 million units this year, up more than 163 percent from the 28.9 million units shipped in 2014. By 2019, shipments are expected to grow even further—to 173.4 million units.