Patent on Apple Watch Fall Detection Improvement

Apple does not stop working even at the end of the year and is that the Cupertino company, as usual every week, has registered new patents that describe possible novelties of its software and hardware in the future. The last one is related to the fall detector of the Apple Watch and, if it turns out to be true, it could save many lives.

More medical information in cases of falls

Since the arrival of the original Apple Watch, we have known dozens of cases in which someone has been able to use the smartwatch to detect heart problems that many times would have gone unnoticed if not for it. Obviously today this watch cannot be classified as a medical instrument, despite the fact that its functions have to be approved by different levels. However, it offers a general idea of the user’s health that in many cases is very close to that collected by instruments handled by doctors.

Apple Watch Fall Detection Improvement

The fall detector is one of the star innovations in recent years and has helped all kinds of people to contact emergency services in cases of serious falls. This has been especially striking in older people who live alone and who have suffered some kind of mishap. Well, according to one of the latest documents registered by the apple brand in the United States Patent and Trademark Office, this functionality could add new improvements that would make it more complete.

In summary, what Apple describes in this document is that when a fall is detected, the Apple Watch will be able to perform an ECG that serves as additional medical information for professionals who come to the rescue of the injured person. This would be achieved through a sophisticated system that the company has described in a block diagram that shows something known as “audio looping techniques.”

Patente ECG en detección de caídas en Apple Watch

Already in the last watchOS betas references were found to an improvement in this functionality of the Apple Watch, so knowing this document now gives us a broader idea of what the company intends to do in the future to continue helping users to prevent damage in case of accidents.

Apple and patents, do they mean imminent launch?

Not in any case. Large technology companies like Apple file dozens of patents every week related to all kinds of existing or future devices. They do this in order to safeguard their plans and the development of their technologies. It is evident that some or other ends up becoming a reality, more or less similar to what is described in the documents, but it does not mean that this is done imminently. Although most end up being discarded, many others end up being a reality after a few years and the fact is that the research and development process of the products requires in many cases years of preparation.

Therefore, what is known in the aforementioned Apple Watch patent cannot be considered for all purposes as a preview of a novelty, despite being information that the company itself handles. However, having already had some previous reference, it is evident that the firm led by Tim Cook is focused on the development of health improvements for his watch and this could probably be one of the novelties of watchOS 8 or even a version prior to this that we could see in the next few months.