Chip manufacturers' embarrassment

With the gradual aging of society, the outbreak of new crown disease has prompted consumers to pay great attention to their health, master their own health data, prevent diseases and adjust their physical state, which has become the focus of many people's attention. As a person who can wear close to his body and often monitor his state wearable devices , it has attracted the attention of the market.

wearable devices There are many health measurement methods, and the heart rate sensing is close to the real value.

As health intelligence wearable devices , for consumers, the important function is to monitor their health status in real time. Looking at the relevant products on the market, it can be seen that most intelligent wearable devices monitor users' physical conditions from several dimensions, such as temperature, heart rate, blood pressure, blood oxygen, etc.

In an interview with an electronics enthusiast, Li Bo, chairman of Chengdu weikexin Microelectronics Co., Ltd., said that from 2018 to 2019, it will be equipped with a heart rate sensor wearable devices Slow development.

However, around 2020, it has entered the stage of rapid development. The detection functions such as heart rate, blood oxygen and temperature have become industry standards, and the epidemic situation has also stimulated the development of the market.

However, among these health check functions, the heart rate is relatively the most accurate. Yang Hui, President of Shenzhen Datong High Tech Co., Ltd., said that in order to obtain correct human health data, we must really monitor the human body itself.

For example, sleep check, turning over or confusion during sleep is light sleep, immobility is deep sleep, getting up and walking is to interrupt sleep, which is completely set by algorithm.

To detect the prepared sleep data, the correct method is to detect the sleep status of the human body through ECG chip and EEG chip, and get the correct results through the actual measurement.

However, many wearable devices do not have such conditions, so you can see a lot of temperature, blood pressure and other inspection data, most of which are calculated by algorithms, not measured.

In contrast, the data measured by the heart rate sensor is correct. It is easy to get the heart rate data by detecting the muscle electrical signal and monitoring the vibration condition.

There are two main techniques for heart rate detection. One is ECG detection based on bioelectric potential detection, the other is pulse wave detection based on photoelectric detection, which is PPG heart rate function, but PPG is widely used in the wearable market.

In contrast, Li Bo believes that if ECG can only be used for watch active measurement, it needs user operation and cannot be used for passive measurement.

PPG can be measured passively. PPG measurement may encounter defects such as incorrect signal and signal loss, but under the difference between passive and positive, PPG has an overwhelming advantage in the market.

The results of heart rate detection help the human body better exercise, rest, recuperation and other behaviors. And in this market, Yang Hui believes that the prospect is huge. Almost all manufacturers are still in the embryonic stage and are not really mature. These skills can be applied to the future aging market, chronic disease management, outdoor sports and other scenes.

Terminal manufacturers with strong sales of heart rate chips are looking for a way out.

At present, it is temporarily impossible to mass produce wearable devices that correctly detect human health indicators, but the detection values can be optimized through the algorithm model to approach the real detection results.

As a heart rate sensor manufacturer, Vik Xinwei feels that the market demand this year is very strong. Li Bo said that most of the pressure now comes from chip processing. At present, the production capacity of chip foundry is tight, the product supply is not so timely, and it is very popular in the market demand.

However, compared with the enthusiasm of chip manufacturers, the situation of terminal manufacturers is not optimistic. Yang Hui said that since this year, shipments of smart wearable products have increased significantly, but profits have decreased significantly.

A product may not even have 10% gross profit, and the enterprise does not invest in research and development. In order to realize the medical application of wearable devices, artificial intelligence and database must be combined to provide services for users.

On the other hand, users only use this product as an ornament for electronic consumption. Many products only have correct calculation steps and heart rate, so it makes no sense to use this product. For example, for some Bracelet products, wearable devices that correctly monitor health data are too high, and the market volume has not increased.

The core issue is intelligence wearable devices There is no service platform, users do not use scenarios, and can only be used as decorations.

In order to make intelligent clothing equipment, hardware and software must be combined, but technology and database need to be accumulated, hardware manufacturing needs a lot of capital investment, hardware and software production also needs a service platform, and landing scenes also need to be integrated.

For example, if the user is found to be in good health and gives timely feedback, the service personnel will contact online or remind by application, including functions such as later outpatient consultation and home care. However, these late services need to be charged, and whether consumers are willing to pay is a new problem.

These scenarios need capital promotion. There are now about 300 million elderly people in China. The cloud health management call service center platform is built to serve 1000 users, 300000 employees are needed, and administrators need to assist these service personnel, which can create 600000 jobs in total. Obviously, this is another huge market.

Lack of standards, current Wearable products It's just electronic health food.

Why the current healthy wearable products are still in the embryonic stage is mainly because the checked data may be incorrect. Even a more correct heart rate sensor needs to use ECG to more correctly display its current situation.

In addition to the passive and active way, the market chooses PPG, ECG also needs to obtain medical license through the certification of the food and drug administration, which also hinders the development of ECG.

Li Bo believes that in addition to ECG requiring medical certification, another important reason is that the center rate sensor of wearable devices only shows users simple ECG and heart rate numbers.

Although it is more accurate, PPG can also display these data. The accuracy can be modified through the data model, so it mainly depends on whether the market is acceptable.

At the same time, the data detected by many healthy wearable devices are basically only for reference and can not be used directly. In addition to most of the test data may be inaccurate, another reason is that there is no international standard or national standard for smart clothing.

Without standards, you can't judge what is good or bad. This needs to be jointly formulated by relevant national departments and industries.

In addition to the temporary absence of general standards, medical certification is also an obstacle. Yang Hui said that so far, Datong High Tech has produced medical device products, but has not carried out CFDA certification. The main reason is that CFDA certification takes about one to one and a half years, plus the time for other materials to be submitted, the certification may take two years.

For smart wearable devices, the development takes about a year, plus nearly two years of certification time. Waiting for the production of products, they may be eliminated.

This also leads most manufacturers to only regard wearable devices as consumer electronic products. All measured data are for reference only, not as medical data. No hospital will recognize the test results of consumer wearable devices. From the perspective of manufacturers, making such products is not very good for enterprises.

Of course, among the smart watches certified by authoritative medical institutions for the first time in China, the watchecg version published by oppo, and the ECG inspection function of Iwatch center published by Apple has been certified by the U.S. FDA.

Recently, apple filed a patent application for terahertz apheresis blood glucose measurement technology with the U.S. patent office. It is expected that this year's Iwatch new products will integrate the blood glucose measurement function.

However, at present, the health functions of most intelligent wearable devices are only for reference. Similar to health care products, their main function is only reminder function.