Jawbone secures patent to measure body fat percentage using smartphones, tablets and wearables

Jawbone UP24

Jawbone has recently filed for patent with the USPTO that describes a method for measuring body fat percentage with existing devices, such as smartphones, tablets, and/or a wristband like the company’s own UP24.

The patent filing describes how the system would use a number of sensors to tell the user how best to place the device to measure body fat percentage. It would rely on broadcasting an “impulse” using onboard vibration motors and measuring the response that comes back. In other words, the phone, tablet or other gadget would jiggle your fat and measure the frequency of the jiggles to get you back an estimate of body fat percentage.

Jawbone’s system would broadcasting an “impulse” using onboard vibration motors and measuring the response that comes back.Jawbone’s system would broadcasting an “impulse” using onboard vibration motors and measuring the response that comes back.The information gathered would be transferred to an app, which would be integrated into a bigger health/fitness tracking picture. It remains to be seen how precise this setup is compared to dedicated body fat percentage meter like the Withings Smart Body Analyzer digital scale, for instance.

The patent is credited to Aza Raskin, the founder of Massive Health, a company Jawbone acquired in 2013.

[Via: TechCrunch]