Apple Watch will have optical sensors instead of the digital Crown |Patent - HDBLOG.it

Digital Crown has always been one of the distinctive elements of Apple Watch, but a new patent lays the basis for its future elimination, or at least it is clear that the Cupertino company is working to find alternative solutions.

The documentation attached to the patent entitled "Watch With Optical Sensor for User Input" describes a change that would see the elimination of the digital Crown in favor of new optical sensors positioned in the same area of the body, designed to identify the user's gestures and make up forMany other functions.The intention is to reduce the mobile components of the smartwatch to free useful space for the insertion of other sensors, or even a larger battery.

The documentation describes several examples of interaction through gestures that the optical component will allow, certainly higher than those offered by the current physical component.

The current digital Crown (from the 4 Series onwards) also hosts the ECG sensor for cardiac detection, but the patent also takes this aspect into consideration, highlighting that the optical sensors can be used for this purpose and beyond: we speak for exampleof their use as the All in One system for monitoring respiratory frequency, blood pressure, blood oxygenation and other monitoring functions., all in line with the most recent vocisulle new health and fitness features concerning the next models.

We must always remember that the presence of a patent on the subject is never a guarantee of future application, also in this specific case we speak of the replacement of a fundamental component and as such it would require a not indifferent redesign.Although it is difficult to make hypotheses on application timing, it is legitimate to believe that the 2022 models will still get a classic digital crown digital.What do you think, is it a sensible modification or do you consider the digital Crown an indispensable component of your Apple Watch?Let me know in the comments.