Apple Watch series is arguably the number one smartwatch on sale today but there are several strong contenders hoping to beat Apple in the segment. Apple isn’t resting on its hoars as it strives to maintain its lead in the wearable segment. A recently published Apple patent spotted by Patently Apple has given us a hint of what Apple has got in the works.
The patents totalling 46 were published in mid-December before the US Patent and Trademark Office. One of the patents details a new type of Digital Crown for a future Apple Watch. It describes a ‘capacitive gap sensor ring for an input device’ which refers to a way in which the Apple Watch’s Digital Crown could be moved like a joystick, as well as being rotated and pushed. The function was first detailed in an Apple patent from 2016, so the joystick idea has been floating around the company’s design studio for a while now. The newly updated patent expands on this, adding that the new crown can “detect inward translation movement of the cap towards the housing”.
Thus, there is a possibility that future versions of Apple Watch could feature a Digital Crown which moves in more directions. It could even debut on the Watch Series 6 which is expected in September 2020.
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Another Apple Watch patent spotted by Patently Apple is that of straps containing new sensors and the ability to adjust themselves. The newly published patent describes a system where the strap automatically tightens when running a specific health-monitoring app. This would push the Watch up against the wearer’s skin, ensuring a good contact for taking medical data, like a heart rate or ECG. We wonder if this would also help Apple record more data, not yet captured by current Watches. Glucose monitoring has long been a rumoured future feature of Apple’s wearable.
We must point out that the new patents may not be used on Apple’s phones anytime soon but they give us an idea of where the smartwatch future design will look like.
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