Apple wants you to be able to interact with your Apple Watch by movement alone

A newly granted patent (number 10,558,278) for “interacting with an electronic device through physical movement” shows that Apple wants Apple Watch users to be able to interact with the smartwatch without having to touch the display.

That doesn’t mean that the tech giant wants to eliminate the touch screen, Digital Crown, etc., just that it is considering other options. For example, the Apple Watch could perform an operation in response to a positioning of your hand and/or an orientation of the electronic device.

In the patent filing, Apple notes that reduced-size electronic devices (e.g., devices that are smaller than typical cellular phones such as smart watches) that are configured to be worn by a user can allow a user to view and respond to various types of alerts, such as text messages, emails, voicemails, and calendar alerts. The tech giant adds that “user interfaces that enable a reduced-size electronic device to be efficiently used for viewing and responding to alerts are desirable.”