Tech giant Samsung recently unveiled the newest version of its Galaxy Watch®, which includes more functionalities for health tracking in keeping with the general trend of smart wearables being used to monitor and analyze data you would normally only be able to get at the doctor's office. In 2018, Apple added a built-in ECG to its Apple Watch®, prompting companies like Withings and Fitbit (owned by Google) to follow suit over the next two years. Samsung's latest addition to the market includes not only ECG but also pulse oximetry and the ability to monitor blood pressure directly from the watch without an additional cuff. These features have been claimed in Samsung's patent filings as early as 2015, but their latest published application from November of 2019 goes into greater detail about a wearable that tightens to ensure better contact with the user's body and releases once the desired physiological signals, including sleep data, are acquired.
Samsung has also partnered with the National Sleep Foundation to provide users with customized "sleep scores" and educational information for better sleep based on tracking data. Despite being slower in rolling out other health functionalities, Samsung has more than twice the number of patent publications (55) in the consumer sleep sector compared to Apple (25), which just announced its first WatchOS® with native sleep tracking in June of this year. This technology, combined with the new features, may make the Galaxy Watch® a stronger wearable overall for those looking to take more ownership over their own health analytics. You can view more of Samsung's development in this space, as well as its competitors, on the Magic Number® Patent Radian®.
