Upcoming Apple Watches may be able to measure blood pressure in a non-optical and innovative way, but it remains unclear if and when Apple will actually implement the technology.
The Apple Watch may get a blood pressure measurement feature. (Image source: Daniel Schmidt)
That Apple is currently working on ways to measure blood pressure isno secret. In fact, such a feature would not necessarily catapult Apple to the top of the wearable manufacturers in this respect, but instead put the company on par withHuawei with its direct measurementorSamsung with its optical measurement. That said, a newpatent (PDF)from Apple has now emerged, which describes a new way of measuring blood pressure with a watch.
How the blood pressure measurement is supposed to work becomes clear when studying the flow chart. An inflatable chamber is first filled, which, together with a sensing chamber and a pressure sensor, work to detect the resulting ‘vibrations’ that occur in the user’s blood flow. In simple terms: Blood pressure is the externally applied pressure required to stop blood flow.Korotkoff sounds, the sounds or ‘vibrations’ that are emitted when pressure is applied to blood flow via a non-invasive procedure, can then be measured.
The patent mentions that the chamber is filled with liquid – what advantages liquid offers instead of air is not immediately clear, as liquids, unlike gases (and ultimately air) are considered incompressible. As always, just because Apple is patenting a particular technology does not necessarily mean that it will be implemented in the nextApple Watchor even at all.
Apple’s concept of blood pressure measurement on a smartwatch. (Image source: Apple)
Source(s)
Apple (PDF)