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(Image credit: Apple)
(Image credit: Apple)
With the launch of the new Watch Series 8 now just weeks away, a newApple patentreveals how the company is working on a temperature sensor for its best-selling wearable.
It has been rumoured for some time that theWatch Series 8, which is due to arrive with theiPhone 14in September, will feature a temperature sensor. And, while it isn’t clear for now if the sensor in this patent will appear in the new model, or is intended for a future version, the document sheds light on what Apple has planned for its smartwatch.
(Image credit: Apple / USPTO)
(Image credit: Apple / USPTO)
No model of Apple Watch has ever featured a temperature sensor before. And while it is simple enough to record the device’s ambient temperature, relaying an accurate reading of the wearer’s own temperature, in a non-invasive way, is more tricky.
As the patent explains: “The temperature probe is configured to generate a voltage corresponding to a temperature gradient between a first end of the probe and a second end of the probe. The temperature sensor can be disposed within an electronic device housing….In this construction, the temperature sensor can be configured to measure a temperature, at any given sampling time or sampling rate, of any surface or volume to which the sensing surface is exposed.”
If accurate, temperature recording can be used for several health and fitness applications. It can help with ovulation and fertility planning, sleep tracking, and predict the onset of illness, as a rising body temperature can be an indication of an immune system working to fight off an infection.
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It has been reported repeatedly that the Watch Series 8could have a temperature sensor, but it is rare for a newly published Apple patent to result in the technology it describes appearing in a product launched just a few weeks later. Either Apple has purposefully delayed the publishing of this patent, or the document describes a technology intended for a future model, and if the Series 8 does have temperature tracking, it will be done in a different way.
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