See how the Apple Watch Series 8’s body temperature feature will work

This article comes from cnBeta

Body temperature-sensing technology is thought to be the headline upgrade the Apple Watch Series 8 will offer when it debuts at Apple’s “Far out” event next week. Thanks to various reports from reliable sources, the human body has a fairly good understanding of how the body temperature health function is expected to work.

Sources such as Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo have long been talking about temperature monitoring for the Apple Watch, but over the past year, rumors surrounding the feature’s eventual debut on the Apple Watch Series 8 later this year have cleared up. Contrary to some observers’ hopes of being able to check their temperature or be notified when they have a fever, it looks like the feature could be significantly limited at launch.

According to the report from Mark Gurman, body temperature sensors are primarily intended to help with fertility planning, to inform women about their ovulation cycles and to improve pattern detection when tracking sleep. Apple has greatly enhanced the Apple Watch’s sleep tracking capabilities in watchOS 9, so it seems reasonable to further improve this area with the help of hardware this year.

Apple is also said to be planning to enable body temperature sensors to detect when users have a fever, but it seems unlikely that this feature will be available at the launch of the Apple Watch Series 8. Going a step further in the future, Gurman thinks, the Apple Watch could determine if a user’s body temperature is higher than normal, but it’s still unlikely to show an accurate measurement. All in all, this suggests that the body temperature sensor included with the Apple Watch Series 8 may not be quite what some users expect.

According to Ming-Chi Kuo, Apple originally planned to provide a body temperature measurement function in the Apple Watch Series 7 models, but the body temperature algorithm developed by the company failed to meet the requirements before the device entered the engineering verification test (EVT) stage last year, so the plan was rejected. shelved.

Apple’s problems with body temperature measurement are said to be related to rapid changes in skin temperature based on the environment, and since smartwatches can’t monitor core body temperature with hardware, the feature relies heavily on algorithms that produce accurate results. That likely explains why the Apple Watch’s body temperature-sensing capabilities may be limited when the Series launches later this year.

Last month, the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office granted Apple a patent for a temperature-sensing system apparently related to the Apple Watch — including a “high-precision and high-accuracy absolute temperature sensor.” Apple’s patent protects an electronic device enclosure that surrounds a temperature-sensing system — including a temperature sensor and a differential temperature probe.

The system works by calculating the difference between the two ends of the probe. One end touches the surface to be measured and the other end connects to the temperature sensor. The voltage triangle across the probe can then be correlated to the differential temperature measurement.

It’s unclear if the exact technology outlined in the patent is related to the body temperature sensor expected to be used in the Apple Watch Series 8. It’s also possible that Apple plans to use a patented system from Rockley Photonics. The company, a British health tech startup, has created a sensor system designed for wearables — including a core body temperature sensor.

Last year, it was revealed that Apple was Rockley Photonics’ largest customer. Rockley’s financial filings say Apple has accounted for the majority of its revenue over the past two years, and it has an ongoing supply and development agreement with the company under which it expects to continue to rely heavily on Apple for most of its revenue. Rockley has previously said it expects its technology to be used in consumer smartwatches in 2022, which could coincide with the launch of the Apple Watch Series 8.

In addition to the body temperature sensor, the Apple Watch Series 8 is expected to feature the S8 chip and a low-power mode to extend battery life. The device is most likely to be unveiled at Apple’s event on September 7.