Kyocera optical blood-flow sensor is among world's smallest for wearable devices, smart phones

Kyocera Corporation has announced that it has developed one of the smallest known optical blood-flow sensors, which measures the volume of blood flow in the subcutaneous tissue.

With the sensor, Kyocera is researching a variety of mobile health (mHealth) applications such as monitoring stress levels or preventing dehydration, heatstroke and altitude sickness by studying trends or changes in blood-flow volume as alerts for these conditions and developing algorithms for detection.

Leveraging Kyocera's expertise in miniaturization, the sensor - only 1mm high, 1.6mm long and 3.2mm wide - is designed for use in small devices such as mobile phones and wearable devices.

The company will offer sensor module samples starting April 2017, and aims to commercialize the technology as a device by March 2018.

Its features include:

.Potential mHealth applications in research and development

.Help avoid dehydration or altitude

.Sickness by monitoring blood flow

.Sending notifications to rehydrate when there are potential risks

.Blood-flow sensor (prototype)

.Blood-flow sensing earbuds

.Check stress levels or orthostatic

.Hypotension while music plays by analyzing blood flow

.Wearable device for heatstroke prevention

.Help prevent dehydration or

.Heatstroke by detecting changes in blood flow

.Wearable device for mountain climbers

The wearable device market has expanded substantially in recent years, focused primarily on health and fitness. New mHealth applications are being developed for a wide range of healthcare applications including chronic diseases, eldercare and wellness.

Global shipments of healthcare wearables are expected to rise from 2.5 million units in 2016 to 97.6 million units in 2021*1.

Kyocera, which provides a wide range of components for smart phones and wearables, has been developing slimmer, smaller products to support higher functionality in more compact devices.

The company developed this sensor as an integrated module, incorporating the laser diode and photodiode into a single ceramic package, based on its established expertise in miniaturization technologies.