Future Apple Watches may be able to respond to a variety of hand gestures

Future Apple Watches may be able to respond to a variety of hand gestures, according to a newly granted Apple patent (number US 11914772 B2) for “Motion and Gesture Input from a Wearable Device.”

About the patent

The patent relates generally to detecting a user’s motion and gesture input to provide commands to one or more devices. In particular, a device (that would be the Apple Watch) can use one or more sensors to determine a user’s motion and gesture input based on movements of the user’s hand, arm, wrist, and fingers.

The Apple Watch could be equipped with multiple photodiode sensors that could detect hand gesture input and respond accordingly. Apple says this would be useful in istuations where the user’s ability to speak a verbal command or perform a touch gesture may be limited.

Summary of the patent

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “This disclosure relates to detecting hand gesture input using an electronic device, such as a wearable device strapped to a wrist. The device can have multiple photodiodes, each sensing light at a different position on a surface of the device that faces skin of a user. Examples of the disclosure detect hand gestures by recognizing patterns in sensor data that are characteristic of each hand gesture, as the tissue expands and contracts and anatomical features in the tissue move during the gesture.”