A mobile client device, such as a wireless mobile or a palm sized personal
digital assistant, is provided with a number of sensors and companion
programming instructions/circuitry to generate a heart rate reading for a
user holding the device. The sensors are used to sense blood flow rate of
the user. The sensors are advantageously disposed in a distributed
manner, in a number of locations of the mobile client device. The
programming instructions/circuitry are used to infer a holding pattern of
the device, and generate the heart rate reading, using a subset of the
sensed data, based at least in part on the inferred holding pattern.