CSEM Inventor Award 2025 Honors Breakthrough Algorithms for Precise Heart Rate and Activity Tracking

More than twenty years after CSEM first pioneered continuous wrist based pulse monitoring, engineer Philippe Renevey has been honored with the CSEM Inventor Award 2025 for his game changing work. His PulseSpeed patent enables high precision measurement, offering huge commercial potential for wearable devices.

Whether jogging, climbing stairs or going for a walk, smartwatches, fitness trackers, and other wearables provide valuable insights into physical activity, such as pulse rate and oxygen saturation. But to ensure reliable data, these devices must rely on sophisticated algorithms to interpret sensor signals accurately.

One person behind these algorithms is Philippe Renevey, this year's CSEM Inventor Award recipient. As a Senior Expert in the Signal Processing & AI group, Renevey specializes in biomedical signal analysis from optical and other sensors. His goal? To develop energy-efficient algorithms that deliver precise, reliable results across a range of devices.

First patented in 2014, PulseSpeed is a cutting edge algorithm that accurately determines heart rate from wearable sensor data collected by devices like smartwatches and smart rings. Beyond just heart rate, it can also detect different activity types and calculate speed and distance—without needing GPS.

Industry is reliant upon inventions like these

"This patent embodies everything CSEM stands for," says Jens Krauss, Business Unit Manager of CSEM MedTech, based at the Inselspital campus in Bern, Switzerland. "We set out to make innovative inventions that can be transferred to industry, creating the greatest possible economic added value there."

Philippe Renevey's invention is a perfect example of this approach: In just the past year, four commercial products have been launched based on the PulseSpeed patent. The technology powers Tissot’s T Touch Connect Sport watch, Festina’s connected hybrid smartwatches, and the Inspiring® smart ring from Norway. The American company ActiGraph also uses the PulseSpeed to collect data for major clinical trials.

"I am delighted to see that Philippe Renevey is being honored – a colleague who has been involved in the development of technologies for mobile monitoring of vital data right from the very outset," adds Krauss. With 25 years at CSEM, Renevey played a key role in the company’s very first patent for continuous pulse rate measurement, filed in 2001.

CSEM the trailblazer

"CSEM developed a watch prototype for heart rate measurement 14 years before the Apple Watch even came to market," says Krauss. "We were the first to measure a pulse rate using integrated optical-inertial sensors on the wrist."

CSEM’s pioneering technology has since been commercialized, copied, and widely adopted. Philippe Renevey's PulseSpeed patent extends protection beyond the 2001 patent, safeguarding the rights of industry partners using CSEM’s technology in their products.

Another inventor behind the award winning PulseSpeed patent is Olivier Grossenbacher, a former CSEM engineer who is now Head of Engineering at CSEM's spin off company Aktiia. The spin off develops wearable blood pressure monitors, built on the technologies first developed at CSEM.