Skip to main content

MediaTek’s Sensio module will let you track health data with your smartphone

mediatek
nito500/123RF
Smartphones have replaced the need for devices like calculators, cameras, and MP3 players. Chip-maker MediaTek thinks they can eclipse wearables to become our personal health companions as well.

The Taiwanese semiconductor company just announced MediaTek Sensio, a biosensor that allows smartphones to track heart rate, blood-pressure trends, heart-rate variability, peripheral capillary oxygen saturation (SpO2, or how much oxygen is in the blood); measure photoplethysmography (PPG, the change in volume of blood or air in an organ), and perform electrocardiograms (ECG, the electrical activity of the heart over time.) This data can be revealed to the user in just about 60 seconds.

Recommended Videos

The module will be sold to smartphone manufacturers to embed in phones, but it will require visible light-sensitive sensors and light-emitting diodes — two on the sides of the phone, and one on the rear. This allows for a closed loop between your heart and the biosensor for more accurate measurements.

mediatek sensio
MediaTek
MediaTek

Smartphone manufacturers can develop their own proprietary app to present this data, but MediaTek said there’s a third-party interface available if the OEM wishes to use it.

MediaTek’s processors power many budget and midrange Android phones and tablets, but the company told Digital Trends a phone does not require a MediaTek system-on-a-chip for Sensio to work. Any smartphone manufacturer can pop it into their next phone — after some tweaking with MediaTek. It will be interesting to see what exactly a smartphone with Sensio will look like, considering it forces a manufacturer to add sensors around the phone, potentially requiring tweaks to the device’s design. mediatek sensio

Sensio is also not meant to be treated as a medical-grade solution, and the company said, “there are inherent limitations in MediaTek Sensio and related software and other factors that may affect the accuracy of the information and data.” It has not been approved by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration, for example. Still, the idea is people would be able to share the data the sensor records with their physician as supplementary information.

Sensio also isn’t gunning for wearable manufacturers like FitBit — it doesn’t track fitness data like calories burned and distance traveled. It’s targeting health and wellness more than anything else.

MediaTek will be showing off prototypes of Sensio at CES, and we’ll likely see smartphones with the sensor embedded next year as well.

Julian Chokkattu
Former Digital Trends Contributor
Julian is the mobile and wearables editor at Digital Trends, covering smartphones, fitness trackers, smartwatches, and more…
MediaTek’s new Dimensity 8200 brings flagship performance to cheaper phones
mediatek dimensity 8200 processor announce specs news title image

MediaTek is adding a new sub-flagship mobile processor to its lineup, and this one comes up with some "core" upgrades. Say hello to the Dimensity 8200, which succeeds the Dimensity 8100 system on chip (SoC), and will soon be appearing inside a bunch of smartphones made by Chinese brands. It will go against the likes of Qualcomm's Snapdragon 7 Gen 1 SoC.
The latest offering from MediaTek wades right into the flagship territory by opting for TSMC's 4nm process. Apple also had its mighty A16 Bionic (powering the iPhone 14 Pro) fabricated on the same 4nm tech. For comparison, the MediaTek 8100 is based on TSMC's 5nm process. 

The other key change is to the core architecture. The Dimensity 8100 offered a dual-cluster design that included four Cortex-A78 cores and an equal number of Cortex-A55 cores. The Dimensity 8200 is embracing a tri-cluster design, much like the top-tier Dimensity 9200 mobile processor and Qualcomm's own flagships. 
You get a single Cortex-A78 core buzzing at 3.1GHz alongside three slightly slower Cortex-A78 cores running at 3.0GHz. For less demanding tasks, there are four Cortex-A55 cores clocked at 2.0GHz. The GPU remains unchanged, but MediaTek is adding a bit of extra grunt to the ARM Mali-G610 graphics engine by pairing it with next-gen HyperEngine 6.0 optimization tools. 
MediaTek has also armed the Dimensity 8200 with the new Imagiq 785 chip to handle its camera capabilities, which allows 4K HDR video capture. The previous-gen Imagiq 780 ISP only offered support for 200-megapixel image capture, but its successor can go up to 320 million pixels worth of imaging data. 

Read more
How MediaTek became the best-kept secret in smartphones
Poster with the MediaTek logo in orange.

What kind of chipset is in your phone? If you're reading this article, chances are you know the answer right off the top of your head. Maybe it's a Qualcomm Snapdragon 8 Gen 1, Google's Tensor G2, or an A16 Bionic in your brand new iPhone 14 Pro. Or, just maybe, it's one with a MediaTek logo on it.

MediaTek isn't a company we talk about often when discussing U.S. smartphones, but it's one we most certainly should. I recently attended MediaTek's Executive Summit in Sonoma and had a chance to sit down with the company's Deputy General Manager of its Smartphone Business Unit, Yenchi Lee. I've come away from the Summit with a renewed appreciation for MediaTek's stealthy success over the years, as well as greater excitement about where it could go in the future.
Massive success hiding in plain sight
Global smartphone shipments from Q2 2020 through Q2 2022 Joe Maring/Digital Trends

Read more
MediaTek’s T800 chipset will bring ultrafast 5G to more devices than ever
MediaTek Processor

MediaTek is on a roll again with a series of impressive chipsets that promise to revolutionize 5G technology from several angles, including taking it beyond smartphones to devices like fixed wireless 5G routers, mobile hotspots, vehicles, and smart home devices.

While the company has already impressed us with some cutting-edge technology in the new Dimensity 9200 this week, it turns out that's just the tip of a much bigger iceberg. MediaTek is also using its modem chipmaking skills to produce smaller and more energy-efficient chips capable of powering the next generation of Internet of Things (IoT) devices without compromising on performance.
The MediaTek T800

Read more