SENSORS | WEARABLES
Finally, manufacturers can
add new fitness activities without
having to modify the software or
needing an original dataset. These
new transferable exercises may be
provided by coaches or star athletes,
enabling benchmarking against
the best and learning from experts,
or simply from the users’ friends.
This enhances the perceived value
of devices and strongly helps the
manufacturers to differentiate.
With the AI running on the
sensor itself, hence on the edge, no
connectivity to the cloud or even a
smartphone is needed. This keeps
the data private and means activities
can be continuously tracked and
analyzed, without the need for an
internet connection or tethering to
a phone. Edge AI also minimizes
latency and power consumption,
meaning users can get fast, real-time
feedback and extended charging
intervals on their devices.
The new sensor is provided to
manufacturers as an integrated
System in Package (SiP) solution,
which includes the hardware,
software and embedded AI. This
reduces development time and costs,
and cuts time to market.
In addition to the self-learning
AI software, Bosch Sensortec offers
a wide range of software solutions
for the BHI260AP. Wearables
manufacturers can simply load
the required software on to the
sensor to enable solutions targeted
at specific use cases including
orientation tracking, position tracking
(PDR) and swimming. The sensor
recognizes four different swimming
styles: butterfly, backstroke,
breaststroke and freestyle. Since the
BHI260AP is a fully programmable
sensor, manufacturers can build
their own customised software to
be embedded in the BHI260AP
or upload customized solutions
depending on the users’ context. To
protect these customized solutions
from unauthorized use, the smart
programmable sensor offers a digital
signature.
To make development of AI based
wearable solutions even easier, Bosch
Sensortec offers an application board
along with a BHI260AP shuttle board,
which can be wirelessly connected
over Bluetooth Low Energy (BLE) to
smartphones.
As well as their everyday use,
however, the most notable value
of wearables lies in their medical
potential. With this in mind, Leman
Micro Devices, the developer of
regulated consumer healthcare
products that is backed by major
players within the mobile device
industry, announces that the first
smartphones, wearables and mobile
devices with its V-Sensor will launch
onto the market in 2021. LMD’s
V-Sensor is the only health sensor
that measures five vital signs – blood
pressure, blood oxygen (Sp02),
respiration rate, pulse rate, and body
temperature – to medical accuracy,
completely cuff-less and calibration
free, with no other devices needed.
Results are delivered on-screen
in less than one minute in LMD’s
e-Checkup app.
V-Sensor-enabled smartphones,
wearables and mobile devices are
convenient – consumers are used to
banking, messaging, taking photos
and running many aspects of their
lives with their phones. V-Sensor
now brings the measurement of
vital signs for personal health to
the same devices. Bundled with a
phone, V-Sensor and e-Checkup are
effectively free to the consumer, in the
same way as a phone camera.
At CES 2021, the first-ever
miniature standalone V-Sensor
device which delivers results to
a smartphone via Bluetooth will
be launched. Developed over
the last nine years, the V-Sensor
is a tiny module with a fingertipshaped
depression on its surface,
containing a MEMs pressure sensor
embedded in flexible resin. The
V-Sensor also contains an optical
sensor, a temperature sensor and
LMD’s custom Application Specific
Integrated Circuit (ASIC) which
conditions and digitizes the signals
from the sensors and drives the LEDs
and communication.
First generation fitness trackers
measure activity (such as steps taken
over time), while today’s secondgeneration
devices measure the
easier health targets such as pulse
rate. V-Sensor heralds the third
generation of mobile, wearable and
phone personal health monitors. It
delivers vital signs results to clinical
accuracy, including blood pressure.
The V-Sensor needs no calibration,
enabling users to check their own
blood pressure regularly and easily
– a major advance in personal health
because hypertension is a silent killer
of over 10M* people per year but
readily treated if you know that you
have it. !
Unlike first-generation
exercise trackers,
Bosch Sensortec can
track a wide range of
exercise types
32 WWW.EUREKAMAGAZINE.CO.UK | FEBRUARY 2021
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