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Patent application reveals possible new Apple Watch gestures – even sign language

gestures

A patent application spotted by Patently Apple suggests that the Apple Watch turning on its display as you raise your wrist could be just the first of many supported gestures. Pointing, waving and even extending pinky and thumb in a ‘phone me’ gesture could all be used to initiate actions on either the Watch itself or a paired iPhone.

While voice and touch input can be an effective way to control a device, there may be situations where the user’s ability to speak the verbal command or perform the touch gesture may be limited.

This [patent] relates to a device that detects a user’s motion and gesture input through the movement of one or more of the user’s hand, arm, wrist, and fingers, for example, to provide commands to the device or to other devices […] The device can interpret the gesture as an input command, and the device can perform an operation.

Apple gives a number of illustrative examples of such gestures …

Turning your hand palm-down and making patting motions could decline an incoming phone call, lifting or dropping your hand palm-up could raise or lower the speaker volume and waving a hand sideways in front of you could turn a page in an ebook. You can see a table of examples below.

But the patent application is far more ambitious than this, depicting someone using sign language, and the paired iPhone able to recognize the signs and convert it to spoken or written language.

Apple describes how the wearable device could use a wide variety of sensor types to detect and interpret gestures.

One or more optical sensors, inertial sensors, mechanical contact sensors, and myoelectric sensors, to name just a few examples, can detect movements of the user’s body. Based on the detected movements, a user gesture can be determined.

This is obviously a far more complex undertaking than some of the Apple patent applications we share, but it’s not difficult to see how even today’s Apple Watch could detect and act on some of the simpler gestures. As always, there’s no telling whether Apple will choose to implement any of the ideas described – we just share the ones which seem particularly interesting.

Apple last updated the Watch two weeks ago, with the launch of watchOS 2.2.

table

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Comments

  1. iSRS - 8 years ago

    Wait, so this isn’t an April Fools joke?

  2. Jake Becker - 8 years ago

    What happens when I smack a MF?

  3. gabrielciteli97 - 8 years ago

    This would be so cool! Imagine walking toward your car, extending your hand and fingers, and your car unlock!

    • galley99 - 8 years ago

      The door handles in a Tesla extend as you walk toward it. If it senses that you are in the driver’s seat with the key on your person, all you need to do is to step in the accelerator to turn the motor on and begin moving.

  4. SA - 8 years ago

    wait – I still have trouble just getting the watch face to appear when I rotate my wrist …

  5. cydianerd - 8 years ago

    This looks pretty awesome. More like a fiction movie :D I hope they will implement this feature in near future.

    Oh, for the battery lovers, this may cause battery drain on your Apple Watch :D #JustReminder

  6. Ellyn McNamara - 8 years ago

    Freaking amazing. I love reading about Apple patents. This is not about money this is about making the world a better place. This is giving people more of an ability to communicate where there are presently barriers (potentially).

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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