“Every once in a while an Apple patent application will surface in Europe that has bypassed the U.S. Patent Office for reasons unknown,” Jack Purcher reports for Patently Apple. “Late Thursday Patently Apple discovered a patent application covering Apple Watch that specifically discusses a multi-modal physiological sensing system.”
“In plain English, the patent is covering the Apple Watch Heart Rate Monitor,” Purcher reports. “And, it looks as though Apple may be introducing a new method for compensating for motion so that users could perhaps one day jog and swing their arms without affecting the heart rate readings as they do today.”
“To address the presence of motion artifacts, examples of the present disclosure can receive light information from each of two light guides, one in contact with the tissue of the user and one not in contact with the tissue of the user,” Purcher reports. “First light information can be obtained from the first light guide, and second light information can be obtained from the second light guide. A heart rate signal can then be computed from the first and second light information, for example, by using blind source separation and/or cross-correlation.”
Much more, including Apple’s patent application illustrations, in the full article here.
I am curious as to what other physiologic parameters the apple watch sensors are capable of monitoring …
Anyone know what happened to the German patent expert who sold his soul to Samdung. He’s been quiet lately.
I believe you’re referring to Florian Müller. His site is still up at http://www.fosspatents.com .
And yes, he has been less active lately. Maybe the paychecks have dried up from whatever company he’s representing now. That would explain it, as he’s a merely a mercenary blogger.
Thanks, you’ve got that right, he is a paid mercenary.
Perhaps Apple bypassed the USPTO because it’s blatantly incompetent and underfunded which as a result costs companies millions of dollars in lawsuits every year.
Perhaps Apple bypassed the USPTO because the European patent offices are fast, efficient and bother to research prior art and conflicting patents, saving companies millions of euros in lawsuits every year.
Or maybe Apple already submitted the patent to the blatantly incompetent and underfunded USPTO and Patently Apple didn’t notice.
Or maybe I’m just having fun pointing out that the USPTO is blatantly incompetent and underfunded.
It really doesn’t matter since, if the patent is not written in chinese or korean, no-one will read it, certainly no-one will notice it, and absolutely no-one will enforce it.
Sounds like Apple is surreptitiously coming up with a new Mood Watch 😉