Apple’s patent describes a band that might conduct, or help, with ECG measurements, amongst different advantages
For at the very least 5 years, Apple has been researching the way it can measure the well being of an Apple Watch wearer non-invasively and conveniently, in analysis that could possibly be utilized to the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional, too.
Apple has been growing a brand new exercise band for the Apple Watch, and optionally different units, that will be fabricated from stretchable material, and conduct well being measurements together with blood strain. Again in 2019, it was granted a patent known as “Cloth-based gadgets with stretchable bands.”
In November 2024, it was granted the identical patent once more. Apple utilized for a patent on this model in 2022, however the submitting additionally refers to a 2020 version.
So this is not some idle pet mission of somebody within the Apple Watch division at Apple Park, it’s continued effort to discover a subject. It won’t be the most efficient exploration, although, because it’s arduous to even spot the variations between the totally different patents and patent functions.
Every of them describe strategies wherein circuitry could also be utilized inside such an merchandise of wearable know-how.
“The stretchable band could also be fashioned from a ring-shaped strip of stretchable material having a gap configured to suit round a physique a part of a person,” says the brand new model. “Circuitry could also be coupled to strands of fabric within the stretchable band.”
“The circuitry could embrace sensor circuitry for making measurements on the physique half resembling electrocardiogram measurements, blood strain measurements, and respiration price measurements,” it continues. “A coil fashioned from conductive strands within the fabric-based merchandise could also be utilized by wi-fi energy receiving circuitry within the fabric-based merchandise to obtain the wi-fi energy.”
Whereas the obvious use for such a band could be a future model of the Apple Watch, Apple has repeatedly been cautious to specify broader functions. For the reason that first variations of this patent have been filed, although, the Apple Imaginative and prescient Professional has been revealed and it is now straightforward to see the allusions to it.
“As examples,” says the patent, “a wrist band with elastic material, a head band with elastic material, or different wearable merchandise that features elastic material (e.g., a hat, an undergarment worn on a person’s torso or decrease physique, a shirt, pants, shorts (e.g., bicycle shorts, board shorts, or different snugly becoming clothes), yoga clothes or different athletic apparel, an arm band, an elastic belt, a sock, a glove, and so on.”
Element from Apple’s patent displaying a ring-shaped wearable band
Claims throughout the patent additionally specify sure supplies, together with nylon and spandex, plus whether or not the band could have electrodes for its electrocardiogram sensor.
Apple’s patent additionally notes that there are points round any wearable know-how and its reliability in common use.
“If care will not be taken, fabric-based gadgets resembling these could not supply desired options,” says. “For instance, a fabric-based merchandise with sensing circuitry could not be capable of collect measurements precisely, could not be capable of work together with exterior tools successfully, or could also be troublesome for a person to maintain clear.”
Consequently, Apple’s patent particulars how such a band may survive any mandatory cleansing.
“The material-based merchandise could also be configured to maintain comparatively excessive temperatures resembling these related to laundering of clothes,” it says. “For instance, the fabric-based merchandise could have supercapacitors for power storage and different electrical parts that may be laundered in sizzling water and dried in a garments dryer with out harm.”
Third-party corporations have beforehand tried to provide Apple Watch bands that present further battery energy, till adjustments in Apple’s design made that inconceivable.
The patent is credited to seven inventors. All seven additionally comprise the entire listing of inventors on a 2020 patent to hide batteries inside an Apple Watch band.