Your Apple Watch may one day remind you that you need to wash your hands as evidenced by a newly granted Apple patent for “Methods and Apparatus for Detecting Individual Health Related Events.
About the patent
The patent relates generally to methods and apparatus for detecting individual health related events, and more particularly, to methods and apparatus for detecting individual health related events based on multiple sensors including motion and audio sensors. In the patent Apple notes that washing hands can prevent illness for a person washing and prevent the spread of illness to others. Handwashing practices, however, vary greatly. Apple says it may be useful to have an electronic device detect handwashing events. And the tech giant thinks the Apple Watch is the device to do this.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Individual health related events (e.g., handwashing events) can be detected based on multiple sensors including motion and audio sensors. Detecting a qualifying handwashing event can include detecting a qualifying scrubbing event based on motion data (e.g., accelerometer data) and a qualifying rinsing event based on audio data. In some examples, power consumption can be reduced by implementing one or more power saving mitigations.”
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