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Patent application could see the Apple Watch calling 911 when it detects a heart-attack

A patent application describes how the Apple Watch and iPhone could work together to detect medical emergencies like a heart attack, and automatically call 911.

While the patent wording doesn’t specifically name either the Apple Watch or iPhone, the meaning of one electronic device cooperating with another one seems pretty clear.

An occurrence of one or more “care events” is detected by an electronic device monitoring environmental data and/or user data from one or more sensors. The electronic device transmits one or more alerts regarding the detected occurrence to at least one other electronic device. In some cases, the electronic device may cooperate with at least one other electronic device in monitoring, detecting, and/or transmitting.

Apple says that the setup could detect a range of emergencies, and take appropriate action depending on the severity – ranging from sending an email to a family member at the low end to calling 911 in the most urgent of cases …

Care events may include a car crash, a bike accident, a medical emergency such as a heart attack or an aneurysm, separation of a child from the child’s caregiver, a dementia patient becoming lost, an avalanche, a fall, a mugging, a fire, and/or any other event for which a user may require medical, police, family, fire rescue, and/or other kind of assistance.

One specific example given is a combination of a sudden movement detected by an accelerometer coupled to loss of a heartbeat reading. In this case, the system would use the combination of factors to suspect a heart attack.

There’s an obvious risk of false alarms, and the patent describes a variety of ways in which these can be avoided. These range from asking the user to respond first (“such as by voice, motion or gesture such as a head shake captured by camera”) to using geographic information.

The electronic device may utilize location information from a GPS device to determine that the electronic device is present [at] a bungee jumping facility. Based on such a determined location, the electronic device may determine that a care event has not occurred unless the acceleration data indicates that a bungee accident has occurred.

Apple has to steer a careful balance when it comes to medical applications for the watch to avoid the need for FDA approvals. While the FDA has said that it is taking “an almost hands-off approach” to fitness-oriented wearables like the Apple Watch, Tim Cook has indicated that concern about this is why Apple didn’t want to build too many sensors into the Watch itself.

The Apple Watch is already assisting with ResearchKit health studies, such as the SleepHealth app launched last week.

Via AI

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Comments

  1. bpmajesty - 9 years ago

    WOW! THIS would be awesome! The technology obviously already exists. Super selling point!

  2. triankar - 9 years ago

    as a software engineer, I don’t want to know how they went about TESTING that… Brrrr….

  3. Michael Sala - 9 years ago

    Nice if it the device picks up an arrest but im skeptical that it is currently technially feasible. The cardiac monitors in hospital diagnose arrests and other serious arrythmias when they are infact artefacts as patients move.

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      Yes, it will be interesting to see if anything ever comes of it. But watch this space for something related next week …

  4. pdixon1986 - 9 years ago

    that’s risky… what if it has a failed sensor etc…
    plus, when apple watch first came out and people were like “the apple watch saved my life” apple quickly jumped on it to claim this isnt a “health” device and shouldnt be used to replace other equipment or relied upon etc

    • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

      Failed sensor shouldn’t be much of an issue due to the safeguards: “There’s an obvious risk of false alarms, and the patent describes a variety of ways in which these can be avoided. These range from asking the user to respond first (“such as by voice, motion or gesture such as a head shake captured by camera”) …”

      • pdixon1986 - 9 years ago

        How would you ask the user to respond first?
        I think it would be better having it as an alert system to you the user – but even then, you cant really predict an heart attack based on heart rates etc.
        This is something that is very tricky – great if they find a way to pull it off though.

        What would be awesome is a way to read blood sugar level – people with diabetes would be able to better monitor levels and be notified if their sugar level is dropping too much.
        a wearable safety device for old people would be awesome too — if the device detected a sudden fall it could alert someone etc…

      • Ben Lovejoy - 9 years ago

        If the system thinks the user has just fallen to the ground and their heart stopped, a loud alert sound and simple ‘Calling 911 in 10 seconds – hit cancel to abort’ countdown would do the trick.

      • pdixon1986 - 9 years ago

        it certainly is an exciting time we live in :-)

  5. PhilBoogie - 9 years ago

    Strange that this is a patent for a device which isn’t shown in the illustration.

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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