Patent received by Apple for smart ring reveals at least one game that the wearable can play،
Apple is reportedly developing its new wearable device, the Apple Ring. Samsung is reportedly set to unveil its first Galaxy Ring at the upcoming Unpacked event to be held this summer and large-scale production of the device is expected to begin next quarter. After toying with the idea of making a smart ring for many years, Apple now seems ready to take on its rival.
Nearly a decade ago, Apple filed patents related to an Apple Ring, including one for a ring that included a camera and one for a ring that supported NFC to help control mobile payments.
The beauty of wearing a smart ring is that sensors embedded in the part of the device that touches your finger can generate data that is then sent to your smartphone. Smart ring wearers will be able to track certain metrics related to health, fitness, exercise and sleep. We imagine an Apple Ring could add support for the Vision
Pro. Based on a patent granted to Apple by the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) and spotted by
It is the house (via
Gizchina), the ring will play the game “Rock, Paper, Scissors”.
The patent focused on using gestures to navigate the Apple Ring's features. With this in mind, the patent explains how the Apple Ring can detect the relationship between a finger (or fingers wearing multiple rings) and other parts of the body in order to understand gestures used by the Apple Ring wearer. The patent showed how the smart ring can respond to pinches, swipes and snaps.
The Apple Ring wearer can use one finger to draw in the palm of another hand while wearing an Apple Watch, suggesting that an Apple Ring can be used to operate Apple's smartwatch.
The patent shows that the Apple Ring can play Rock, Paper, Scissors. Image credit-Gizchina
It will be interesting to see what health-related features Apple will include on an Apple Ring. The Apple Watch is known for saving lives with its heart rate monitor, ECG sensor, fall detection and crash detection sensors, and blood oxygen sensor (which has been removed of certain models due to a successful patent challenge by Masimo). The Apple Ring could offer the same functionality even if the user would have to use an
iPhone screen to view the results.
However, given the DOJ's recent lawsuit against Apple, claiming that the company's monopolization of the smartphone market allows it to dominate the smartwatch sector, the tech giant may have to allow an Apple Ring to work with the Android handsets in addition to iPhone models.
