A new patent specification shows that Apple is staying tuned to the blood pressure issue. However, an additional optical sensor alone is not enough.
The Apple Watch has made a name for itself with many of its owners as a medical aid for measuring heart rhythm, blood oxygen and pulse. However, the addition of additional sensors requires a great deal of inventiveness, as a patent filed by Apple shows. Specifically, it is about measuring blood pressure with the watch.
The various patents that Apple has received since 2018 and that have been documented by Patently Apple give little hope that the solution could lie in another optical sensor. Apple’s ideas all have in common that the classic measurement method with compression of the arm is used. While earlier ideas used wristbands that sometimes seemed absurdly wide, the current patent specification shows an approach that is more compact.
sensor with liquid
The idea is to use a liquid-filled sensor that is pressed against the user’s skin in conjunction with a kind of air pump and an expansion mechanism to measure the blood pressure in a blood vessel. The sensor should then use the liquid volume to determine the values ​​and pass them on to the watch. In any case, special bracelets would probably be necessary to enable this type of blood pressure measurement.
Of course, the existence of a patent says little about whether and how Apple plans to incorporate a function into its products in the future. However, a look at the patent specifications shows that Apple is apparently very interested in this topic and that research is apparently making progress through the miniaturization of the concepts.
Recently it was read that Apple has postponed the introduction of blood pressure measurement on the Apple Watch until at least 2024. However, a temperature sensor is planned for this year.
