Apple gets 66 new patents today, granted by the US Patent and Trademark Office. Among them, one is clearly indicating towards either a future Apple Watch or a secondary fitness assistant tracker device. The patent also covers lots of other feature details like understanding gestures via a special algorithm that can understand on which limbs the user wore it, blood oxygen level reading sensor, Touch ID on the display, and so on.
To detect the exact limb, the watch will receive one or more signals through atleast one position sensing device and analyze the limb gesture(s) to figure out exactly on which limb of which side the users wore the device. For the entire process multiple position sensing devices, processing devices, and obviously pattern recognition algorithms will work together.
Result? It will able to detect where the user wears it – either in the wrist, arm, ankle, leg, or somewhere else including the left or right positioning. As per the placement, the device will work.
The model may also include heart rate monitoring, blood pressure measurement, temperature checking, blood oxygen saturation level checking, diet or nutrition information, and so on.
In Apple’s patent, FIG 2 describes an overview of a wearable electronic gadget through block diagrams. In it, Apple noted, “The display may also provide an input surface for one or more input devices, such as, for example, a touch sensing device and/or a fingerprint sensor.”
In the FIGs, 3A and 3B are describing the change of positive and negative direction of X and Y axes when the device placed somewhere else. Lastly, FIG 14 illustrates how the device determines a limb, through a flow chart.
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