Apple is continuing to work on bringing Apple Watch bands to life; this time via electrodes to enable a greater array of gesture controls.
Apple Watch’s Double Tap feature may be just the beginning, with a patent filing detailing how a new smart strap could offer gestures via muscle contractions.
After the success of the Double Tap gesture within the most recent Apple Watch models, the company is planning to track other movements in the wrist and hand.
In a newly updated patent filing, spotted by Wareable, Apple explains how electrical activity from muscle contractions associated with the planes of motion in the wrist, could be used to send commands to the Apple Watch. Those movements include flexion and extension, pronation and supination, and radial/ulnar deviation. All have a unique electronic signature.
The patent explains: “In some examples, the electrodes can be configured to detect electromyography (EMG) signals, which is the electrical activity that results from the contraction of muscles. In some examples, the electrodes can detect EMG signals that are produced by the activity of the flexor and extensor muscles and tendons in the forearm and wrist of a user. To detect the EMG signals, multiple rows of electrodes and conductive wiring can be formed in the band of a watch or other wrist-worn device.”
“From this electrical activity, various hand movements and gestures can be detected and used to initiate or perform various functions.”
How a gesture strap could work
The patent, named Electrodes For Gesture Recognition, focuses more on the technical execution of the idea, going into detail about the electronic circuitry, rather than explaining how that would translate directly to Apple Watch functionality.
However, in our experience of studying patents, this would suggest the idea is probably closer to becoming a realized product. Once the motion data had been transmitted to the Apple Watch accurately, producing the accompanying software would likely be the easy part.
The patent details how pairs of electrodes would be spaced out across the length of the band, each tuned to identify different movements in the hand and wrist. The movements can trigger pre-set actions on the watch or can be trained by the wearer, enabling an element of customization, the filing says.
The document goes on: “In some examples, electrodes can be located relatively uniformly across the band into which they are formed (e.g., woven, knitted, fabricated, intertwined, etc.).
“Uniform electrode coverage around the wrist can allow electrode measurements to be recorded from most or all of the extensor and flexor muscles with tendon endings at the wrist, enabling a wide range of gesture detection and classification.
“Hand movement “signatures” comprised of various expected electrode measurements at various locations at certain times can be stored or determined, either empirically during product development or as a result of the device being “trained” after the user performs a requested series of hand movements, as controlled by the processor.”
Filtering out false positives
Apple has also detailed how the sensor-laden watch band would conserve power, only waking other pairs of electrodes, when certain gestures are detected. That may be key, as it’s easy to believe there’d be a significant number of false positives if a specific gesture or command was not required to activate the functionality.
Apple initially filed an application for this technology in 2022, but it certainly isn’t the first time we’ve seen Apple outline technology to smarten up the Apple Watch bands with sensors, cameras and other components. Until now, none of those filings have materialized.
However, the existing Double Tap gesture – involving tapping the thumb and forefinger together twice – has proven an intelligent way for Apple Watch owners to access functionality like answering phone calls, pausing media, and snoozing an alarm when they don’t have a secondhand available for touchscreen control.
That is enabled by a smarter chip within the most recent Apple Watch Series 9 and Apple Watch Ultra 2 devices. The well-received nature of that feature may have convinced Apple there’s more life in broadening the gesture-based functionality.