This Google patent may extend the battery life of your next smartwatch

The world of technology never sleeps. Google's latest patent concerns a new antenna design for wearable devices like smartwatches (via MSPoweruser).

Just filled patent because the new design makes the antenna more compact and optimized for communications.

According to Google, the updated antenna design uses a microwave dielectric substrate with high relative permittivity. This is what makes this particular antenna design so special: it can store electrical energy (which means better battery life) and transmit (send and receive) signals much better.

Google also claims that the antenna design is extremely compact – with dimensions of 8mm or less in width and length. Impressive!

The search engine giant said that some of the possible applications of this new design could take the form of a smart ring (remember Samsung's teaser and the Galaxy Ring?)

Antennas are important in many ways in wearable technology. They are essential for collecting data from tracking sensors (like blood pressure trackers or the GPS functionality of fitness watches) and then transmitting it to the part of the device that does the analysis or storage.