A new report from the Korean outlet ET News suggests that Apple’s next premium smartwatch, Apple Watch Series 7 will come with blood sugar monitoring. However, the Cupertino-based firm will not have it as an exclusive feature as Samsung is set to unveil three smartwatches with this feature. In fact, the Korean firm may be the first to debut this new feature as the new wearables are expected for the company’s second Unpacked event of the year. We may see it coming as one of the key features within Galaxy Watch4.
Samsung’s new wearables are presumably “Galaxy Watch 4” and “Galaxy Watch Active3”. Both are tentative names as the brand needs to confirm, and we’re still several months away from a release. The new smartwatches will probably debut alongside the new foldable smartphones. Samsung’s new feature will join ECG and will give a bigger appeal to the Galaxy Watch4 as a medical-wearable device.
As per the report, the feature makes use of an optical sensor that could detect blood glucose (sugar) levels. This kind of feature is particularly important for people with diabetic conditions. However, it can help other people to monitor the glucose and revert from a pre-diabetic state. This feature is available in electronic devices where it normally involves drawing blood and using a device to detect the amount of glucose within the sample of blood.
Samsung developed its own blood sugar monitoring tech
Apparently, Samsung is planning to use a method based on Raman spectroscopy. It was developed by research done by Samsung and MIT. The optical sensor gathers information from the wavelengths that are caused by the vibrations of a material when laser light is scattered after hitting the material. The accuracy of this signal is what MIT and Samsung have been able to achieve.
As aforementioned, both Apple and Samsung managed to introduce ECG capabilities on their smartwatches. The first introduced it within the Watch Series 6, the second on the Galaxy Watch 3. Both of these companies faced government approval before the features could arrive. This mandatory since they bring medical-tier technologies. Every government wants to test the feature to know if they are, in fact, accurate. We expect the same to happen with the new Blood Glucose reading feature. Hence, there is a long road for these features before becoming available. Certain countries can even receive the new smartwatches with the feature disabled.
For now, we need to wait and see if the Korean firm will be able to unleash the technology before Apple. Nowadays, the first to deploy new technology is usually the one that gets the innovation title.
