I do think personal health monitoring devices will become almost universal, and this is certainly a step in that direction, but this seems more like a gadget than a solution, more of a marketing play to establish mindshare than a thought out product ready for the market.

Samsung’s approach is to use light sensors to detect things like heart rate and blood pressure:

The sensors in the band project beams of light into the skin at varying strengths in order to reach tissue near the surface or deeper in. For instance a sensor may aim a beam of light at the strength needed to reach a vein, where it might read pulse rate.

Part of this ecosystem is a cloud platform, called SAMI (Samsung Architecture Multimodal Interaction), used to gather and store user health data. The implications here are large. Who owns that data? Who controls access to it? What about the US HIPAA rules, Title II of which requires the establishment of national standards for electronic health care transactions.

Samsung is treading on the edge of the deep water here. It’ll be interesting to watch this industry evolve, especially if and when Apple steps into the fray.