Huawei Earbuds tech could measure SpO2 and heart rate through ear

Huawei is the first company to launch a SpO2 blood oxygen monitoring feature in smart bands and smartwatches and it also has one of the most accurate heart rate trackings but do you know that Huawei also has a tech patent for earbuds that could measure both of these right inside your ear?

An internal patent reveals that new Huawei earbuds tech could measure SpO2 blood oxygen and heart rate from within a user’s ears. Blood oxygen saturation (SpO2) is a useful indicator of a person’s health. It represents the percentage of hemoglobin in the blood that contains oxygen.

Details of the patent:

An embodiment of the present application provides an earphone, including an ear bag and a detection sensor disposed of in the ear bag, and the detection sensor is used to detect blood oxygen saturation and heart rate.

The ear bag includes a first contact part and a second contact part. When the earphone is worn on the ear, the first contact part contacts the inner bottom surface of the concha cavity of the ear, and the second contact part contacts the inner surface of the tragus of the ear.

A detection sensor is provided on at least one of the first contact parts and the second contact part where the ear bag is in contact with the skin of the ear, which can reduce the transmission distance between the detection sensor and the skin, and effectively improve the detection sensor’s ability to detect blood oxygen saturation and the accuracy of health indicator detection such as heart rate detection.

Moreover, the contact between the first contact part and the second contact part and the tragus and the concha cavity is relatively stable, and the earphone has good stability even in an active scene, which can further improve the detection accuracy.

Is this possible?

Yes, it’s the first question that triggers among the readers but after surfing through the web, there are a number of detailed articles that may help you to learn about optical heart rate sensor that is possible in earbuds (link) and In-ear SpO2 (link).

So the answer is yes, it’s possible to measure these two readings but we can’t confirm whether Huawei is planning to launch earbuds or wearables with this new patent. However, we do want to see it in action.