MediaTek is probably best known for making the chip that power budget and mid-range smartphones from Chinese device makers (and a few Western companies). But the company’s latest product isn’t just a chip. It’s a module that can be embedded into smartphones to a range of user health data.

It’s called the MediaTek Sensio MT6381 and the company calls it a “6-in-1 smartphone biosensor module.”

Basically it’s a hardware and software solution that can track the following things:

  • Heart rate
  • Heart rate variability
  • Blood pressure trends
  • Peripheral Oxygen Saturation (SpO2)
  • Electrocardiagraphy (electrical activity from your heart)
  • Photoplethysmography (changes in blood volume)

You’ll need to hold your finger to a light-sensitive sensor on your phone for about 60 seconds to measure all of those things, so this isn’t the same kind of passive monitoring you might get from a wearable solution. And it’s not entirely clear how much demand there is for this sort of module in a smartphone. But it does show that MediaTek is thinking beyond the CPU.

The MediaTek Sensio MT6381 module measures about 6.8mm x 4.9mm x 1.mm and includes red and infrared LED lights and a light sensor that measures absorption of light from those LEDs.

It’s expected to be available in early 2018.

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