Photoplethysmography Patents: Who Leads, Where the Gaps Are 2026
- Filing has already peaked. 2018 hit 60 filings; by 2026 the pace has fallen back toward 2017 levels, with every tracked major assignee posting 0 filings and a -100% YoY drop in the latest year.
- One diagnosis subclass dominates almost everything. 525 of 526 families sit in A61B, with healthcare informatics (G16H, 71) a distant second — most competitive activity is happening inside a single IPC subclass.
- The most-cited prior art predates the current wearable wave. The top-cited record draws 883 citations from a 1990s-era cardiac-emergency patent, a reminder that citation counts here reward age, not present relevance.
Filing growth compares 2021 (51 records) with 2024 (39) — a three-year span. 2024 is the most recent year we treat as complete: publication lags filing by roughly 18 months, so 2025 onwards are still filling in and any growth rate that ends there would understate the field. Top-5 share is the combined record count of the five largest assignees divided by all 526 records in scope (CR5), not by the ranked leaders only.
A single-jurisdiction-heavy field built on one core IPC class
Photoplethysmography (PPG) patenting tracked here spans 526 patent families filed between 2015 and mid-2026, concentrated overwhelmingly in A61B — the diagnosis and surgery subclass that covers wearable sensors, motion-artifact correction and SpO2 estimation. Filing rose through the late 2010s, peaked in 2018 at 60 families, and has since drifted down; by the 2022 midpoint annual output had already fallen to 53, and the trend has not recovered.
The United States is the largest receiving office by a wide margin, followed by Europe and India, with China and Australia trailing. Because publication typically lags filing by around 18 months, the most recent year understates true activity — but the multi-year downward drift predates that lag effect and looks structural rather than a reporting artefact.
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Filing trend and technology composition
Two views of the same 526-family dataset: how filing volume has moved year over year, and how that volume splits across IPC subclasses.
Filings rose to a 2018 peak, then declined
From 26 families in 2017, filings climbed to a peak of 60 in 2018, held near the midpoint at 53 in 2022, and have fallen back toward 21 by 2026 (a partial year). The shape is a rise-then-plateau-then-decline, not sustained growth.
A61B carries almost the entire dataset
A61B (diagnosis & surgery) appears in 525 of 526 records — essentially the whole corpus. G16H (healthcare informatics, 71), H04W (wireless networks, 23) and G06F (data processing, 20) represent the secondary layers where PPG signal data gets transmitted, processed or turned into informatics products, while G01N, G06N, G05B and A61M each sit in single digits to low teens.
Shares are the percentage of the 526 records in scope. A patent can carry several IPC classes, so the shares add up to more than 100%.
Go deeper on Photoplethysmography and Optical Vital Sensing with Eureka
This page is one run against one query. Ask Eureka your own question about photoplethysmography and optical vital sensing and every answer comes back with the patent numbers behind it.
Try EurekaMost-cited prior art and a representative recent filing
US20230263474A1 — Parallel adaptive motion artifact removal
The disclosed system improves physiological estimates (heart rate, pulse oxygenation) extracted from PPG signals captured by wearable health monitors by employing three sign-data least mean squares (SDLMS) filters in a cascaded parallel combination that each successively remove motion artifacts in the x-, y-, and z-dimensions. A window function eliminates spectral content unlikely given recent frequency estimates, and a smoothing function uses historical physiological data to stabilise the output.Filed by Rajant Health Incorporated, published 2023-08-24 — illustrates the current focus on multi-axis motion artifact cancellation rather than raw sensor hardware.
| # | Publication no. | Patent title | Citations |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | US5228449A | System and method for detecting out-of-hospital cardiac emergencies and summoning emergency assistance | 883 |
| 2 | US20140275852A1 | Wearable heart rate monitor | 858 |
| 3 | US8948832B2 | Wearable heart rate monitor | 330 |
| 4 | US20100268056A1 | Washable wearable biosensor | 330 |
| 5 | US10137245B2 | Central site photoplethysmography, medication administration, and safety | 285 |
| 6 | US8920332B2 | Wearable heart rate monitor | 276 |
| 7 | US20170209055A1 | Photoplethysmography-based pulse wave analysis using a wearable device | 232 |
| 8 | US8140143B2 | Washable wearable biosensor | 212 |
| 9 | US20200100693A1 | Arrhythmia monitoring using photoplethysmography | 162 |
| 10 | US20190046056A1 | Multi-Vital Sign Detector in an Electronic Medical Records System | 158 |
Citation counts accumulate over time inside this searched corpus, so older foundational filings dominate the ranking regardless of current commercial relevance.
Each row carries its publication number; clicking a row searches Eureka by that number.
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Three read-throughs from the trend, the IPC split and the citation table.
The growth phase is over
Filing peaked in 2018 and has declined since, with the 2022 midpoint at 53 already below peak. Every major assignee tracked shows 0 filings in the latest year and -100% YoY, consistent with a maturing rather than expanding claim space.
Almost no diversification outside diagnosis claims
Nearly every family in this dataset sits in A61B, with G16H, H04W and G06F trailing far behind. New claim space is more likely to open in how PPG data is processed or transmitted than in the core sensing subclass itself.
Old cardiac-emergency art still anchors the field
The most-cited record in the corpus is a 1990s-style cardiac-emergency detection patent, not a modern wearable filing. High citation counts here reflect age and searchability, not current commercial weight.
Eureka can read the same corpus for gaps instead of for coverage: under-claimed branches adjacent to photoplethysmography and optical vital sensing, with the prior art for and against each one.
A crowded historical field with no active leader right now
Every large consumer-electronics and healthcare assignee tracked in the recent-momentum data shows zero filings in the latest year, which flattens the usual leader-board picture and pushes attention toward specific claim gaps instead.
The whole top tier paused simultaneously
Assignees including Apple, Fitbit, Samsung, Philips, Huawei and Honor all show 0 filings in the most recent year, several with -100% YoY. That is unusual breadth for a slowdown and suggests either a filing lull ahead of a new design cycle or a shift of activity into adjacent, non-A61B categories not captured by this search string.
Cross-sector pairing between telecom and hospital research
The strongest co-assignee pair links a major telecom-equipment manufacturer with a leading hospital research institute, pointing to clinical-validation partnerships as one route into this space rather than pure consumer-hardware filing.
US-first filing strategy with EPO as clear second
The United States receives nearly double the filings of the European Patent Office, with India and the PCT route trailing. China and Australia are minor receiving offices in this corpus, which matters when deciding where freedom-to-operate searches should focus first.
| Assignee | Recent year | YoY |
|---|---|---|
| Apple Inc. | 0 | -100% |
| Fitbit, Inc. | 0 | — |
| Samsung Electronics Co., Ltd. (Korea) | 0 | -100% |
| Koninklijke Philips N.V. (Royal Philips) | 0 | -100% |
| Huawei Technologies Co., Ltd. | 0 | -100% |
| Honor Device Co., Ltd. | 0 | — |
| Livemore Corporation | 0 | — |
| Valencell, Inc. | 0 | — |
Where to take this from here
The trend and IPC data point to a field that has stopped expanding at the top but still has open claim territory in adjacent processing and calibration branches.
Check freedom-to-operate against the top-cited art first
Before filing near motion-artifact removal or SpO2 estimation, clear the highest-cited records in this corpus — several predate the current wearable generation but still carry broad claim language that reads onto modern designs.
Explore prior art in EurekaWatch for a re-acceleration once the current lull ends
Zero filings across every major tracked assignee in the latest year is unusual; if it reflects a filing pause rather than abandonment, a new wave is likely once next-generation sensor designs clear internal review.
Track assignee activity in EurekaTarget the under-claimed processing layer, not the sensor core
With 525 of 526 families in A61B, the more open ground sits in G16H-adjacent informatics and H04W-adjacent connectivity claims layered on top of standard PPG sensing hardware.
Map white space in EurekaCommon questions on PPG and optical vital sensing patents
The dataset shows filing peaked at 60 families in 2018, held near 53 by the 2022 midpoint, and has fallen toward 21 by 2026. This pattern is consistent with a technology that reached broad claim coverage in its core sensing methods relatively early, after which incremental filings slowed. It does not necessarily mean commercial interest in wearable PPG has declined — publication lag of roughly 18 months means the very latest years are always undercounted, but the multi-year downward drift predates that effect and looks like genuine maturation of the core claim space.
The recent-momentum data is notable for showing zero filings in the latest tracked year across every major assignee monitored, including large consumer-electronics and healthcare device makers, several with a -100% year-over-year change. That flattens any simple leader-board answer for the most recent period. Looking at the historical corpus rather than the latest single year gives a more reliable picture of who has built up the largest overall portfolio in this space.
A patent family groups all the related filings — continuations, divisionals and equivalent filings in different countries — that stem from the same original invention. Raw document counts can make one invention look like several if a company filed aggressively across jurisdictions. This landscape uses family counts (526 total) specifically so that heavy multi-jurisdiction filers do not appear artificially larger than single-jurisdiction filers with equally valuable inventions.
The IPC composition shows 525 of 526 families sit in A61B, the core diagnosis and sensing subclass, while adjacent categories like healthcare informatics (G16H, 71 records), wireless networks (H04W, 23) and AI-based computing (G06N, 11) are comparatively thin. That imbalance suggests more open claim territory in how PPG signals get processed, transmitted and turned into clinical or consumer informatics, rather than in the sensing hardware itself, which is heavily claimed already.
Citation counts in a searched corpus like this one systematically favour older records simply because they have had more years to accumulate citations. The top-cited record here draws 883 citations but comes from an early cardiac-emergency detection patent rather than a modern wearable PPG filing. Use citation rank to identify foundational prior art worth clearing in a freedom-to-operate search, not as a measure of which technology is currently most commercially important.
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Disclaimer. This page is generated from Patsnap Eureka data drawn from a limited snapshot of global patent and scientific-literature records, and is provided for general information and reference only.
Patent data carries inherent limitations: recent filings (typically the most recent 18–24 months) are under-counted due to standard publication lag; counts may be reported at either a patent-family or a patent-record basis and are not always directly comparable; classification, applicant-name, and citation data may contain errors, duplicates, or omissions; and the underlying search query defines and constrains the scope shown. As a result, the analysis may be incomplete or inaccurate and may not reflect the full technology landscape.
Nothing on this page constitutes an exhaustive prior-art, novelty, freedom-to-operate, or validity search, nor does it constitute legal, financial, investment, or professional advice, and it should not be relied upon as such. Any patent, commercial, or strategic decision should be verified independently and reviewed with qualified patent, legal, and domain professionals. Patsnap makes no warranties, express or implied, as to the accuracy, completeness, or fitness for any particular purpose of the information presented.
Machine translation. Assignee and organisation names originally recorded in Chinese, Japanese or Korean have been rendered into English by an AI translation step so that the tables stay readable. These renderings are best-effort and may not match a company’s registered English name; the original name is what the underlying patent record carries, and it is what any Eureka query launched from this page uses.