“Apple has filed a patent application for a wearable device with sensors that could measure electrocardiographic signals, the tech titan’s latest push into the health care field,” Ed Carson reports for Investor’s Business Daily. “It could be a wristband, ring or other form on the body.”
“Apple filed the patent on April 15, according to a U.S. Patent and Trademark Office filing Thursday,” Carson reports. Apple has been expanding into health care, with its ResearchKit released last year.”
“The Apple Watch, Apple’s first wearable, can monitor your pulse,” Carson reports. “An upcoming Apple Watch software update will let people contact 911 via their wearable.”
Read more in the full article here.
MacDailyNews Note: Apple’s patent application abstract:
A wearable device configured to acquire and process electrocardiographic measurements, detect lead inversion and correct the acquired measurements for lead inversion is provided. In one example, the wearable device can detect lead inversion by first assessing whether the P-wave of a given electrocardiographic measurement has a negative amplitude, and if the P-wave is found to be negative, the device can determine if the magnitude of the R-wave is smaller than the maximum of the magnitudes of the S-wave and the Q-wave. In another example, the device can be put through an enrollment procedure in which electrocardiographic measurements are taken with the device being worn at known locations on the body. Once the enrollment procedure is completed, when the device is being used, any electrocardiographic results obtained can be compared against the measurements taken during the enrollment phase, and the location of the device on the body can be determined.
Now it’s getting interesting. Blood sugar monitoring with IR has also been suggested.
Non-invasive (not puncturing the skin) blood sugar monitoring is the holy grail for diabetics like my wife. Lots of work has been done on it, but nothing (so far!) has come close to being sufficiently reliable. It would still be good to alert for extremes, especially for those of us who *don’t* have (or don’t know that we have) diabetes.
But for now, blood must still be directly accessed. When Apple can do it without, it will be a game changer! Until then, Dexcom is my wife’s best friend. 🙂
WATCH already measures pulse. So this must be a step beyond? Like signaling a heart attack, or other heart ailment?
(Sorry but I didn’t really understand the legalese of the patent application.)
I’m not a doctor, (and don’t play one on TV,) but it seems to me that this provides a full blown EKG – more like a map of how your heart is beating than just a number representing its frequency. I’m sure someone can correct me and provide a better explanation, but yes, this goes *way* beyond just measuring pulse. Signaling heart attacks and other heart ailments is right on point.