Future iPhones and Apple Watches may let you know if you can perform certain activities. Apple has filed for a patent for “Performance Forecasting for Activities.”
About the patent filing
In the patent filing Apple notes that many existing mobile and wearable devices, such as smartphones, smartwatches, and earbuds include sensors that provide data that can be used to determine the health and/or fitness of a user. These devices may include a fitness application that allows a user to select a route for walking, running, biking, or hiking. For example, a user may query a hiking application to find the best trails near the user and provide reviews from other users to find out about current trail conditions.
Sensor data, such as a heart rate and motion data can be used to track the user’s vitals and movements during physical activities from which health and performance metrics can be computed, including but not limited to heart rate, respiratory rate, caloric expenditure, recovery rate, etc. Some metrics can provide an indication of the user’s ability to engage in physical activities.
For example, the iPhone can provide mobility metrics, such as estimates of walking speed, step length, double support time, and walking asymmetry. These mobility metrics can be used to characterize the user’s gait and mobility.
However, Apple says that a problem often encountered by users who wish to engage in a physical activity, such as hiking, is their inability to assess their performance of the activity. For example, a user may not know if they can handle a particular hiking trail without overexerting themselves. There are many variables that can impact their performance, such as the user’s physical fitness, injuries, trail conditions, trail difficulty, weather, etc. Overexertion while performing an activity could result in the user feeling dizzy, sore, hot, sweaty, or have a high pulse rate, abdominal pain, heart flutters or chest pain.
Apple wants the iPhone and Apple Watch to be able to tell a user if he/she can safely perform an activity.
Summary of the patent filing
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “Embodiments are disclosed for performance forecasting for activities. In some embodiments, a method comprises: obtaining personal prior assessment information associated with a user, obtaining historical performance information associated with a previous activity, obtaining activity assessment information for a current activity; and forecasting a performance of the current activity by the user based on the personal prior assessment information, the historical performance information, and the activity assessment information.”
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