Samsung Patents a Smartwatch Screen That Checks Blood Pressure Through Your Finger and Wrist
Your smartwatch screen could take a second pulse reading through your fingertip while the back of the watch reads your wrist. Samsung Display's patent application compares the two to estimate blood pressure.
What Samsung's two-sided watch screen does
A smartwatch sits against your wrist all day, shining light into your skin to read your pulse. That is one spot on one arm, and the filing says blood pressure estimates built on a single spot can only be so accurate.
Samsung Display's patent application gives the watch a second pair of eyes. Light sensors and tiny lights sit on the back of the device, facing your wrist, and more light sensors are tucked in among the pixels on the front. Rest a fingertip from your other hand on the screen and the watch reads both places at once.
It then compares the two pulse readings over time to estimate blood pressure and other heart-health numbers. The idea is simple: two measurement spots give the watch more to work with than one.
… a first element layer located on one side of the substrate and including a pixel including a first light-emitting element and a photo sensor including a first light-receiving element; a second element layer located on another side of the substrate and including a second light-emitting element and a second light-receiving element …
Translation: The watch uses light sensors on both sides of the screen to read your vital signs from your finger and wrist.
How the front and back sensors compare pulses
The patent describes a display built around a substrate (the base layer the screen is made on) with electronics on both faces. The front layer holds the normal pixels plus photo sensors (tiny light detectors) mixed in among them. The back layer has its own light emitter and light receiver, aimed at the wrist.
Two separate chips handle the signals:
- The first chip reads the front sensors and turns what they detect into a digital number.
- The second chip switches on the back light, then turns the reflected light it picks up into a second digital number.
A processor cleans the noise out of both signals and pulls features from each pulse curve: the height of the systolic peak (the surge when the heart pushes blood out), the height of the diastolic peak (the smaller bump as the heart relaxes), how long each takes to arrive, and the area under the curve up to the first peak. It also computes a reflection index for each side, the diastolic peak divided by the systolic peak.
From those features, the processor calculates systolic and diastolic blood pressure, then broader health information. The filing also describes a short sensing mode of about 8.3 milliseconds for pulse reads, versus about 100 milliseconds for fingerprint scans.
… a second integrated circuit to control the second light-emitting element to emit light and to generate a second digital value based on a signal sensed by the second light-receiving element in response to reflected light of the emitted light …
Translation: A dedicated computer chip measures how your blood reflects light to calculate your blood pressure.
Why a second reading point could help wearers
For you, the pitch is a more trustworthy blood pressure estimate from a wearable. The filing's stated problem is that many existing methods measure from a single spot on the body, which limits statistical accuracy. Two spots give the watch a second pulse shape to compare against the first.
The description adds another possible benefit: differences between the two readings could reveal early trouble in the blood vessels of one body part. Samsung Display makes screens, so this is a bid to turn the display itself into a health sensor. The filing names no product and gives no launch plans, and any blood pressure result would still need to hold up against a standard cuff.
Samsung's 24th filing we've tracked since June in our body-reading wearables watchlist follows the pulse-from-screen application and the self-tightening band.
If it works, the benefit you would notice is a blood pressure number from your wrist with no cuff, built on two measurements instead of one. A reading from a single spot can be thrown off by that spot, and the whole filing is aimed at that weakness.
The price is a bit of effort: you would rest a fingertip on the screen while the watch reads. That is a small ask for a health check, and far easier than wrapping a cuff around your arm.
The text we have gives no clear accuracy numbers, and a watch estimate only earns trust when it lines up with a cuff reading. Treat this as a promising sensor layout that still needs proof.
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The drawings
28 drawing sheets from US 2026/0305960 A1 · click any drawing to enlarge
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