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iWatch likely contains pedometer; Jawbone designer imagines ‘wearable kit of sensors’

With Apple’s iWatch looking set to have a major health and fitness angle, and likely to be bristling with sensors, it seems likely that a pedometer will be one of them. Patently Apple reports on an Apple patent designed to allow steps to be accurately tracked using a wrist-mounted device. Or, in patentspeak:

In some implementations, optimizations for detecting steps when a pedometer is worn at a user’s wrist are described. In some implementations, a threshold crossing step detection method can be enhanced for wrist locations by counting the number of positive peaks between comparison threshold crossings, adjusting a minimum peak-to-peak threshold for qualifying threshold crossings, and inferring a second step based on the amount of time between threshold crossings. In some implementations, the pedometer can automatically determine that the pedometer is being worn on a user’s wrist.

Jawbone’s design lead Yves Béhar, meantime, has been imagining how “a wearable kit of sensors” could enable us to effectively take our doctor with us wherever we go in a piece written for TIME

Mobile technology is bringing us closer to the day when we’ll be able to essentially wear our doctors. So when TIME asked me to propose an idea for how design can improve the world, my thoughts quickly turned to medicine. I call my concept–and for now, it is only that–LifeTiles: a wearable kit of sensors for monitoring individual health.

With the sensor system designed to be both “non-invasive” and “aesthetically pleasing,” and enabling us to take a proactive approach to our health, his vision sounds an awful lot like what we’re expecting to see in the iWatch.

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Comments

  1. techtalons - 10 years ago

    Reblogged this on Tech Talon and commented:
    cool

  2. Mark Carabin - 10 years ago

    I’d instantly buy any product that made it easier to monitor my blood glucose levels and kept track of everything through my phone with ease. Current options are clumsy at best. With 23 million diabetics in the US alone, not to mention other people that need to or just want to monitor their health for various reasons, it’s a market ripe for innovation and change. Medical companies now make a decent amount of their money from test strips. Here’s hoping Apple, a company that doesn’t need “test strip income” can put some serious development resources behind something like this and make it more than just a pretty pedometer.

  3. It only remains to be seen what Apple has actually in store.

    My guess:
    – non-touchscreen device (cost, complexity, usability issues)
    – monochrome or oligo-chrome e-ink display (or something equally power-frugal). UI probably equally thin and elegant
    – round watch bezel acting as selection wheel (not clickable, though). If done right, it’ll be cheap, easy to replace (different styles, perhaps) and reliable
    – 1 or (preferably) 2 buttons for navigation
    – tons of health-related sensors

Author

Avatar for Ben Lovejoy Ben Lovejoy

Ben Lovejoy is a British technology writer and EU Editor for 9to5Mac. He’s known for his op-eds and diary pieces, exploring his experience of Apple products over time, for a more rounded review. He also writes fiction, with two technothriller novels, a couple of SF shorts and a rom-com!


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