The Apple Watch can already detect when a user falls and can alert a user to dangerously loud noises. However, Apple is considering even more health features for the smartwatch and the iPhone.
About the patent
A newly granted patent (number US 12100282 B2) is dubbed “Care Event Detection and Alerts.” It relates generally to care events, and more specifically to detection of care events and transmission of alerts regarding detected care events.
The patent describes care events as any event “that may occur for which a user may need care.” For example, 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.
In order for the user to receive care for such a care event, one or more individuals or entities who provide such care (such as friends, family, firefighters, ambulances, hospitals, police, and so on) may need to be alerted to the fact that the care event has occurred. Often, the user may contact such individuals or entities upon the occurrence of the event. For example, a user who has been in a car crash may telephone emergency services for an ambulance.
However, in many cases the user may be incapacitated and/or otherwise unable to initiate communications regarding the care event. Apple wants to equip its smartwatch and smart phone with features to overcome such limitations.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “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. For example, the electronic device may detect the occurrence based on sensor data received from a cooperative electronic device or such data in combination with the electronic device’s sensor data. By way of another example, the electronic device may detect the occurrence and signal a cooperative electronic device to transmit one or more alerts.”
