Apple has filed for a patent (number 20220079521) for “wearable tags” for health-related monitoring and reporting.
About the patent filling
Electronic devices are sometimes used for health-related functions such as heart rate monitoring and fitness tracking. In the patent filing, Apple says it can be challenging to incorporate the desired range of health-related functions into an electronic device. In addition to having limited functionality, conventional devices may be bulky or may otherwise be cumbersome to use.
Apple’s idea: wearable tags that may be coupled to a user’s body or clothing and may be used for one or more health-related functions such as physical therapy, sun exposure monitoring, fitness tracking, activity tracking, medical applications, biometric applications, wellness applications, personal training, rehabilitation, fall detection, posture monitoring, stress relief, focus, full-body motion tracking, and/or other suitable health-related functions.
The wearable tags may be worn one at a time, or multiple tags may be worn at the same time on different parts of the body. A wearable tag may include one or more sensors (e.g., light sensors, motion sensors, heart rate sensors, etc.), haptic output devices, light sources such as a status indicator, wireless power receiving circuitry, and/or communications circuitry for communicating with an electronic device.
About the patent filing
Summary of the patent filing: “A system may include an electronic device that communicates with one or more wearable tags. The wearable tags may be placed on different parts of a user’s body or clothing and may be used for one or more health-related functions such as posture monitoring, sun exposure monitoring, physical therapy, running assistance, fall detection, and other functions.
“The wearable tag may have different types of sensors that gather different types of sensor data depending on the health-related function that the wearable tag is being used for. A user may configure, control, and receive data from the wearable tag using an electronic device. The electronic device may be used to determine the location of the wearable tag on the user’s body and to determine the desired health-related function for the wearable tag based on user input or based on sensor data gathered from the wearable tag.
