SonyPatent applicationHealth & bodyInterest 6/10

Sony patents heart rate tracker that checks its own accuracy

Patent drawing from the official filing.

Sony has filed a patent for a signal processing method that improves heart rate readings from wearable devices. The system measures the quality of the raw biometric data and the cleaned data after noise removal to determine how reliable the final heart rate estimate is. It then adjusts the reported heart rate based on this reliability score to ensure higher accuracy.

Why it mattersThis technology could make fitness watches and smartwatches more trustworthy by automatically flagging or correcting readings when the sensor signal is weak or noisy.

In the filing’s own words

A heart rate can be estimated with high accuracy. A signal processing device estimates a first signal quality of an input biometric signal; estimates a second signal quality of an output signal from a noise reduction processor; estimates a heart rate based on the output signal from the noise reduction processor, and estimates a reliability of the estimated heart rate based on a result of the estimated first signal quality and a result of the estimated second signal quality; and corrects the estimated heart rate based on the reliability of the estimated heart rate. The present technology can be applied to a wearable heart rate meter.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A signal processing device, comprising: a first signal quality estimator that estimates a first signal quality of an input biometric signal; a second signal quality estimator that estimates a second signal quality of an output signal from a noise reduction processor; and a heart rate estimator that estimates a heart rate based on the output signal from the noise reduction processor and estimates a reliability of the estimated heart rate based on a result of the estimated first signal quality and a result of the estimated second signal quality.

Facts

Company: Sony (SONY GROUP CORPORATION)
Official title: SIGNAL PROCESSING DEVICE, SIGNAL PROCESSING METHOD, PROGRAM, AND LEARNING DEVICE
Publication number: US20260332272A1
Application number: 19109772
Filed: Sep 6, 2023
Published: Oct 22, 2026
Inventors: 4
Claims: 20

Classified under

H04B 13/005 Electricity & electronicsH04B 10/80 Electricity & electronicsH04B 15/005 Electricity & electronicsH04B 17/346 Electricity & electronics

Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.