The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office published a granted patent for Samsung in mid-Q2 for a body composition measuring device that may eventually be introduced in a future version of their Galaxy Watch Active. Samsung is trying to compete with Apple Watch and Tech Radar posted a report just yesterday claiming that Samsung may add two major Apple Watch 4 Features with an ECG being one of them.

Samsung notes that along with the development of medical technologies and extension of the average lifespan, there has been an increasing interest in health care. In line with this, an interest in medical devices is also increasing. The range of such medical devices has expanded from various medical devices used in hospitals or health examination organizations to small-size and medium-size medical devices provided in public organizations and small-size medical devices and health care devices that are personally owned or carried.

A body composition measuring device, which is a sort of health care device, measures body composition using a bioelectrical impedance analysis (BIA) that obtains a ratio between quantities of fat and moisture by using the flow of low-energy alternating current (AC) waves based on an electric resistance difference between adipose tissues and non-adipose tissues.

Body fat in the fitness industry is often a controversial topic. However, with the right tool, measuring body composition can be a powerful way to engage individuals with a personal training program that demonstrate progress. Gym clubs use bioelectrical impedance analysis and it's done with bulky equipment. You could learn more about this here under #3 for BIA.

Samsung granted patent covers a simplified BIA system for a future watch.  This is just one project that they hope will help them compete with the many health related features found on Apple Watch today which dominates the wearables sector by a wide margin.

According to Samsung, the BIA regards a human body as a combination of impedances, inputs current to the human body, and measures a voltage corresponding to a human body impedance to measure the human body impedance from the current and the voltage.

Samsung's invention combines a smartwatch with a body composition measuring device.  

According to an aspect of an exemplary embodiment, there is provided a wrist-wearable body composition measuring device, including a main body, a strap connected to the main body, a first input electrode and a first output electrode which are provided on an inner surface of the strap and configured to contact a wrist of a subject, a second input electrode and a second output electrode which are provided on an outer surface of the strap, a measuring unit configured to measure a body impedance of the subject by applying current to the first input electrode and the second input electrode and detecting a voltage generated between the first output electrode and the second output electrode in response to the applied current, and a processor configured to analyze a body composition of the subject based on the body impedance.

Samsung's patent FIGS. 1A and 1B below are perspective views of an appearance of a wrist-wearable body composition measuring device according to an exemplary embodiment, showing an outer surface and an inner surface of a strap, respectively,

Samsung's patent FIG. 2 above is a block diagram of a wrist-wearable body composition measuring device according to an exemplary embodiment; FIG. 3 is a block diagram of a measuring unit (found in FIG. 2) used in the wrist-wearable body composition measuring device.

Samsung's patent FIG. 4 below shows an example of a body composition measuring posture used in connection with a wrist-wearable body composition measuring device according to an exemplary embodiment;

FIG. 5 schematically shows an equivalent impedance of a subject in the measurement posture of FIG. 4; FIG. 8 shows another example of a body composition measuring posture used in connection with a wrist-wearable body composition measuring device.

Samsung's patent FIG. 5 above schematically shows an equivalent impedance of a subject in the measurement posture of FIG. 4.

Samsung's patent FIG. 14 below is a graph showing body composition (body fat mass) analysis results using a body composition measuring device.

Samsung's patent FIG. 15 above is a graph showing body composition (body fat percentage) analysis results using the body composition measuring device.

Samsung's recently granted patent was originally filed in Q1 2015.