Upcoming Apple Watches could sport a respiratory measurement system

Apple has filed for a patent (number US 20240188845 A1) for future Apple Watches with a respiratory measurement system.

About the patent filing

The patent filing relates generally to systems and methods for monitoring respiratory parameters of a user and more particularly to systems and methods for determining respiratory rates for a user using impedance-based measurements.

In the patent filing Apple notes that wearable electronic devices are increasingly incorporating sensing systems that measure physiological parameters of a user. Depending on the physiological parameter being measured and the desired sensing modality used to make a measurement, certain sensing locations are more conducive to obtaining accurate and repeatable measurements. 

For example, a user’s respiration rate may be more easily measured at a user’s torso, which contracts and expands as the user breathes. Measuring respiration at a user’s limb, such as at the wrist, or a user’s head, may present challenges as movements of these portions of the body may be somewhat decoupled from movement of the torso during breathing. Apple says that what is needed are “wearable electronic devices that are capable of measuring a user’s respiration rate at various body locations.”

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “Embodiments are directed to a wearable device that can include a housing, a touch-sensitive display coupled to the housing, a band coupled to the housing and configured to secure the housing to a user, and a plurality of electrodes that contact the user when the wearable device is worn by the user. The wearable device can be configured to cause the plurality of electrodes to apply electrical signals to the user, measure the electrical signals from the user using the plurality of electrodes, generate a set of impedance data from the measured electrical signals, and identify one or more respiratory cycles using the set of impedance data.”

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