Valencell and STMicroelectronics development kit for biometric wearables

Valencell and STMicroelectronics have announced a development kit for biometric wearables that includes ST’s compact SensorTile turnkey multisensor module integrated with Valencell’s Benchmark biometric sensor system.

The SensorTile is a tiny IoT module (13.5 x 13.5 mm) that packs on board a powerful STM32L4 microcontroller, a Bluetooth Low Energy chipset, motion and environmental MEMS sensors and a digital MEMS microphone. Integrating the SensorTile development kit with Valencell’s Benchmark sensor technology simplifies the prototyping, evaluation and development of wearable and IoT solutions by delivering a complete Valencell PerformTek technology package, ready for integration and delivery into wearable devices.

At just over 180 mm², the SensorTile turnkey sensor board is jam-packed with a MEMS accelerometer, gyroscope, magnetometer, pressure sensor and a MEMS microphone. With the onboard low-power STM32L4 microcontroller, it can be used as a sensing and connectivity hub for developing firmware and shipping in products such as wearables, gaming accessories and smart home or IoT devices.

SensorTile has a complete Bluetooth Low Energy transceiver including a miniature single-chip balun on board, as well as a broad set of system interfaces. It can be simply plugged to a host board, and when powered it immediately starts streaming inertial, audio and environmental data to ST’s BlueMS smartphone app.

Valencell’s PerformTek sensor systems provide robust and flexible technology that gives wearable and hearable devices the ability to continuously measure blood flow signals, even during extreme physical activity or when the optical signals are weak. These signals can be translated into biometric data, including continuous heart rate, VO₂ and VO₂ max, resting heart rate, heart rate response, heart rate recovery, continuous energy expenditure (calorie burn), cardiac efficiency and heart rate variability assessments.