Valencell Sensor System Measures Blood Pressure for Hearables/Wearables

US-based biometric technology company Valencell announced at CES 2020 this week that it has developed a new blood pressure (BP) sensor system that can be integrated into hearable and wearable tech.

The new system was developed in partnership with Sonion — a Danish company that specializes in the manufacturing of microacoustic and micromechanical components — and was tested on thousands of patients over tens of thousands of datasets in the fall of 2019. The results of the study, which are to be presented to the American College of Cardiology Annual Scientific Session in March 2020, revealed an 89% accuracy in recognizing high BP, which, according to Valencell, is more accurate than comparable technologies available today.

Valencell plans to provide the new system to medical and consumer electronics manufacturers to include in their devices. Because the system isn’t dependent on a traditional BP ‘cuff’ for its measurements, it doesn’t require any calibration and can simply be worn by the user in an unobtrusive manner.

The system also doesn’t require any other sensors other than the photoplethysmography (PPG) and inertial ones it has onboard, and can allow for the wearer to receive accurate BP readings throughout the day, with the reference design for it showing it embedded into an earbud, similar to the ones already worn by millions of people around the world every day.

“We are very excited to announce the availability of this technology for a few reasons: 1) we see tremendous public health value for over one billion people with hypertension in measuring blood pressure in devices people are wearing everyday anyway, 2) providing cuff-level accuracy without the cuff in a sensor system that can be embedded in many different form factors and devices is truly groundbreaking,” said Dr. Steven LeBoeuf, Valencell president and co-founder. “Valencell has been working on this technology for many years and we look forward to working with our partners to integrate this technology in their next devices,” he added.

Valencell is also continuing research to be able to place this tech in other form factors such as wrist-wearables like fitness bands and smartwatches, as well as rings.

CES 2020 is taking place in Las Vegas and runs until Friday, January 10th.

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January 8, 2020 – by Tony Bitzionis