Toshiba also has a smart wearable vital signs sensor module

Jul 10, 2014 06:28 GMT  ·  By

Samsung, LG, Motorola and others have already invited you to join the wearable party, and other major tech brands like HTC, ASUS and most recently Xiaomi are expected to jump onboard the same bandwagon until the year comes to an end.

Naturally, we’re pretty sure every big player in tech industry will eventually end up launching a wearable of some sort, at some point.

Toshiba has also made a plunge, at least in the Japanese market. But unlike most smartwatch and smart band producers, the company is targeting a specific niche.

The device maker is looking to blend medical expertise into its upcoming wearable, which will reportedly be a biological sensor to be attached to the human body. The “Silmee Bar type” will be rolled out in the country in September, but note that it won’t be a mass consumer-bound product, reports Techon.

The product will be sold only to universities, research institutes and enterprises and is expected to be used for testing purposes and in scientific studies.

The wearable is bundling technology capable of measuring an electrocardiogram, pulse waves, body motion, skin temperature and so on.

Experimenters will place the Silmee on the subject’s chest with a gel pad. The wearable takes the measured data and calculate the amount of body motion and posture, results which can be displayed on a smartphone or tablet, because the wearable incorporates a Bluetooth connection.

The sensor is relatively small, measuring 64 x 28 x 9.6mm / 2.5 x 1.1 x 0.3 inches and it weighs approximately 14.6 g / 0.03 lbs. You can check out the image above to get an idea of how the wearable will be attached to the human body. The wearable is waterproof abiding to IPX5/IPX7 standards.

Toshiba's sensor is quite small
Toshiba's sensor is quite small
Toshiba seems to be taking an interest in the healthcare business, which it defines as being one of its major areas of focus.

The company aims to strengthen its position within the market by 2016, but the question remains whether it has any interest of penetrating the main stream wearable ecosystem too.

Back in April, Toshiba launched its own application processor for wearables. This is an ARM Cortex-M4G with a floating processing unit (can combine data from multiple external and internal sensors) and DSP (digital signal processing).

High res ADCs are used to convert analog signals from external sensors (pulse wave and ECG / electrocardiogram) into digital data, which is then taken to the central processor.

Sure, these processors are to be sold to third-party wearable manufacturers, but this doesn't mean Toshiba can’t make use of it and implement it into a device of its own.

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Toshiba to launch wearable biological sensor
Toshiba's sensor is quite small
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