Rockley Photonics intros 'clinic-on-the-wrist' module for wearable health monitoring
Silicon photonics technology developer Rockley Photonics (Oxford, UK and Pasadena, CA) has introduced its complete full-stack, “clinic-on-the-wrist” digital health sensor system.
Rockley’s sensor module and associated reference designs for consumer products integrate hardware and application firmware to enable wearable devices to monitor multiple biomarkers, including core body temperature, blood pressure, body hydration, alcohol, lactate, and glucose trends, among others. Its full-stack sensing solution features a wristband that contains the sensor module and communicates with custom cloud-based analytical engines via a Rockley smartphone app. The wristband will be used in a sequence of in-house human studies in the coming months.
Dr. Andrew Rickman, CEO and founder of Rockley Photonics, says, “We believe that combining machine learning algorithms with continuous monitoring of an extended set of biomarkers from accessible wearable devices will provide new actionable insights to enhance and transform digital healthcare.”
Through its “clinic-on-the-wrist” technology using a miniaturized chip solution that provides continuous, noninvasive monitoring of core biomarkers, Rockley expects to be able to overcome the key challenges associated with mobile wellness monitoring. While many wearable consumer electronic devices use green light-emitting diodes (LEDs) to monitor heart rate, the company’s infrared (IR) spectrophotometers can detect and monitor a much wider range of biomarkers, which could dramatically increase the functionality of wearable devices.
The central and differentiating element of the sensing system is a noninvasive sensor module based on the Rockley platform’s spectroscopy technology. Unlike more common spectroscopy solutions, which use broad-spectrum light sources, the company’s sensor module generates a large number of discrete laser outputs from a single silicon chip covering a broad optical band. The sensor noninvasively probes beneath the skin to analyze blood, interstitial fluids, and various layers of the dermis for constituents and physical phenomena of interest. Such biomarkers have historically been measurable only by using benchtop equipment.
Rockley’s architecture also delivers several milliwatts of optical output power per wavelength channel, which is key to achieving the high signal-to-noise ratio required for signal analysis from a small wearable.
Rockley is initially targeting the consumer electronics market, in which significant advances in digital personal health and fitness monitoring have occurred in recent years. The company is also actively pursuing the application of its technologies with medical device companies, as biomarker monitoring can advance digital health applications and improve disease prevention, detection, and management.
In March 2021, Rockley Photonics entered into a definitive agreement to combine with SC Health Corp. (Singapore), a publicly traded special-purpose acquisition company. The transaction will result in Rockley becoming a publicly traded company on the NYSE under the symbol RKLY.