InvenSense® Enables Continuous Heart Rate Monitoring With Vital Sign Monitoring System Solutions Using 6-Axis Inertial Sensors

SAN JOSE, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Oct. 14, 2015– InvenSense, the leading provider of intelligent sensor system on chip (SoC) for Motion and Sound, announced its motion artifact correction and heart rate variation platform solutions for Photoplethysmography sensors. PPG technology consists of light-emitting diodes (LEDs) and photodetectors to monitor pulse rate noninvasively. InvenSense’s HRM sensor system solutions enable in-activity and continuous heart rate monitoring by removing the motion artifact signal from the PPG signal using its 6-axis integrated MEMS (3-axis accelerometer + 3-axis gyroscope) device to deliver accurate heart rate (beats-per-minute) monitoring during elevated motion activities. The HRM system solution also measures the R-R interval (the interval from the onset of one R wave to the onset of the next one, during one complete cardiac cycle) while static. This is used to calculate Heart Rate Variability (HRV), a new biometric that wearable devices are now providing their users to help determine overall wellness and stress level.

PPG sensors for heart rate monitoring are fast becoming a standard sensors in mid-to-high-end wearable devices like smartwatches, activity monitors, and Bluetooth headsets. Yet, the limitation with many of today’s smartwatches and activity trackers using PPG sensors is that they either require the user to be very still before initiating a heart rate measurement manually, or they deliver inaccurate heart rate information while the user is in motion. Ideally, heart rate measurement should be continuously occurring without user intervention. InvenSense’s HRM solutions are capable of delivering a typical heart rate (bpm) accuracy of +/6 bpm regardless of activity and an R-R interval of less than 10%. InvenSense vital sign monitoring solutions are delivered as part of InvenSense’s FireFly SoC wearable system platform that integrates a 6-axis motion sensor(6-Axis Inertial Sensors), M0 core, and Digital Motion Processor (DMP) blocks for efficient lower power processing and works in conjunction with many of the leading PPG sensors.

“Delivering an accurate heart rate is vital to wrist-worn wearable devices regardless of the activity in progress,” said Eitan Medina, vice president of marketing and product management at InvenSense. “Continuous heart rate monitoring will enable our OEM partners and developers to correlate heart rate and stress level to activity, context, and even meeting/calendar events, thus helping them deliver valuable wellness/fitness-related services to their end users. Accurate vital sign monitoring is imperative for the wearable market to help drive mass market adoption. As wellness/fitness services become more useful and intimate because of vital monitoring data, better lifestyle choices can be made. InvenSense will continue developing sensor SoC solutions to assist our wearable customers achieve their goals of accurate and dependable health/fitness data.”

InvenSense HRM Motion Artifact Correction and Heart Rate Variation system solutions are available for mass production development projects today.