Samsung Display shows off a touchscreen that can read your vitals

Imagine finding out your blood pressure just from touching a smartphone screen for a few seconds.

That's a potential future envisioned by Samsung Display. The display company (a spin-off from Samsung) showed off a host of new screen types at SID Display Week in Los Angeles this week. These included a rollable display like a wall scroll and an ultra-wide desktop monitor, but the most interesting one was the Sensor OLED Display, which can read biometric data by itself.

In other words, you can touch your finger on any part of the screen and the screen can recognize it without the need for a separate module, which is necessary in current smartphone touchscreens. More fascinatingly, however, the OLED display can read the contraction of a finger's blood vessels using reflected light to tell you about your stress level, blood pressure, and heart rate.

Samsung Display also said it can get a more accurate blood pressure readout by reading fingers from both hands.

The announcement didn't include any information about potential devices that may use the Sensor OLED Display tech in the future. That's probably a ways off, anyhow. Regardless, this tech could have an interesting impact on smartphone displays. Imagine not only being able to unlock a phone by touching the screen anywhere, but also being able to check your blood pressure in a jiffy that way.

This may very well never come to pass, but it's nice to dream.