Apple has patented a new smartwatch technology that could enable the company to bring a much-awaited health feature to the Apple Watch — blood pressure monitoring. According to a document published by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), the company could use a novel method inspired by traditional blood pressure monitors to perform measurements. If the company introduces an Apple Watch with this technology in the future, it should be able to determine blood pressure parameters without relying on optical sensors.
Apple's Wearable Blood Pressure Monitoring Device Uses Liquid-Filled Sensing Chamber
In a patent document published on Thursday, Apple describes (via Notebookcheck) a wearable device that comprises a strap, a pump, an inflatable chamber, and a sensing chamber that contains a liquid. In addition to these components, the company also says that the device will use a vibration sensor and a pressure sensor, which will detect a user's blood pressure.
Apple says that the technology described in the document can be built into a wearable device, and the diagrams included with the patent suggest that it will be similar to the Apple Watch, including a crown and a side button, seen in Fig. 1A, while the process of measuring blood pressure levels is described in Fig. 7 and Fig. 8.
Fig. 1A and Fig. 1B show how the device would function
Photo Credit: USPTO/ Apple
When the device is worn by a user, the inflatable chamber is expanded using a pump, causing the user's wrist to be compressed. The sensing chamber will then measure vibrations and pressure — this takes during the inflation process. The chamber is then deflated, and the device will simultaneously measure vibrations and pressure again.
Another flowchart included in the document reveals that Apple's new blood pressure monitoring feature could expand the inflatable chamber (using the pump) and measure vibrations from the sensing chamber. The device would then attempt to verify whether these measurements were valid, maintain the inflation in the chamber, and measure both pressure and vibrations once again, before deflating the chamber.
Apple's patent document suggests that using a liquid-filled sensing chamber will offer better accuracy and sensitivity, when compared with air-based chambers. The device described by the company could be integrated with different wearable devices, but the drawings shared by Apple suggest that it could make its way to the Apple Watch in the future.
It has previously been reported that Apple has been working in integrating support for blood pressure monitoring on the Apple Watch for several years, and it was previously tipped to arrive with this year's Apple Watch Series 10 model. However, there has been no word from the company on when customers can expect to see the feature make its way to the company's popular smartwatch.
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