Australian firm Cardiex is working with Chinese consumer electronics and AI company Mobvoi to develop and launch a smartwatch with heart and arterial health management features.

The commercial partnership agreement expands an existing joint development agreement from 2019. Cardiex and Mobvoi will jointly launch the smartwatch using the Cardiex’s proprietary and globally patented SphygmoCor technology for measuring central arterial waveforms.

“I’m excited to move into commercial production of our first wearable device with Mobvoi, one of the global leaders in smartwatches and consumer AI technology,” said Craig Cooper, CEO and managing director of Cardiex. “This partnership enables us to showcase a select feature set of our Arty health analytics platform, representing some of the most advanced cardiovascular and consumer wearable features available on the market today, all based on technology previously only available through specialist clinicians. In a crowded market of consumer wearable health features, we believe that clinically validated cardiovascular data have an ever-increasing role in delivering better public health outcomes”

Under the agreement, Mobvoi will develop the hardware and firmware for the smartwatch, while Cardiex will integrate a proprietary algorithm feature set based on the Arty health analytics platform. The smartwatch, targeted for release early next year, will be the first in the world to feature the firm’s Heart Stress, Arterial Age, Exercise Capacity (eCAP) and Arty Score, together with active community and AI-powered health coaching services.

The partnership follows successful feasibility studies by Cardiex subsidiary Atcor to extract clinically relevant cardiovascular and consumer health data features from a wearable device fitted with a PPG sensor. Cardiex subsequently submitted a patent for a unique and novel method of extracting advanced health data from a PPG sensor based on the research as well as fifteen trademarks for novel and unique wearable heart health features.

Based in Beijing, Mobvoi is one of China’s fastest growing and most innovative artificial intelligence (AI), wearable and consumer technology companies and has partnerships in place with Google and Volkswagen.

The launch of the smartwatch builds on Cardiex’s recent launch of Atcor X, a division focused on the development and licensing of clinically relevant cardiovascular algorithms for wearable and connected fitness companies.