Samsung’s health tracking device is one step closer to your heart

Samsung’s S-Patch is one step closer to becoming a consumer product thanks to it receiving FCC approval. The S-Patch is a wearable health tracking device that clips to the user’s chest and contains Samsung’s Bio Processor chip.

The chip tracks a range of biometrics including ECG heart monitoring that shows the heart’s rhythm and electrical activity. If you think of those beeping heart machine in hospitals, that’s ECG.

Having a constant heart monitor that connects to your phone could be lifesaving for those with heart conditions, or frankly anyone who goes into cardiac arrest.

But the Bio Processor doesn’t stop there, it is also capable of measuring body fat, stress, skin temperature, and sweat. And that was what it was capable of back in 2015, so we don’t know the full capabilities of the S-Patch.

Finger on the pulse

The FCC approval came through in May 2017, and doesn’t have any information about the specifics of what the S-Patch is capable of. It does refer to the S-Patch as the S-PATCH3, which may sound a little confusing as we haven’t had an S-Patch 1 or 2, but what’s more likely is that this is the third iteration of the device.

A prototype of the S-Patch was originally demonstrated by Samsung at consumer tech event CES 2016, which was presumably one of the previous versions. The demo was distinctly light on features, but did show a wireless real-time integration with a mobile phone, which we are assuming was through a bluetooth connection. Check out the demo below:

Whatever the S-Patch is capable of, it will certainly be above and beyond the capabilities of any fitness tracker on the market. We can't imagine that this is a device that everyone is going to want to snap up, as having a device strapped to your chest at all times is definitely more invasive and unsightly than a watch-like product.

But if you really want to measure all your accurate biometrics - either for fitness or for your health - fitness trackers currently don't cut the mustard, so we can easily imagine people getting on board with health trackers like the S-Patch as an additional device.