On this Christmas Eve it's a rather slow day at the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office as government workers are working overtime with Santa today in their North Pole facilities. The skeleton staff that was left behind was able to officially publish a series of 35 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this report we cover a patent granted for a smart bedding system that monitors a user's vitals while sleeping. The second patent covers Apple Watch and exercise monitoring system. As always, we wrap up this week's granted patent report with our traditional listing of the remaining granted patents that were issued to Apple today.

Smart Bedding: Vital Signs Monitoring System

Today Apple was granted patent 10,512,432 for "Vital Signs Monitoring System" that Patently Apple covered as a patent application back in 2018 titled "Apple Patent Reveals a Vital Signs Monitoring System Integrated into a Bedding Mat that's not from Beddit." You could review our original report here for more graphics and details.  

Apple's patent FIG. 5C presented below illustrates a top view of an exemplary monitoring system including multiple sections. You could see the outline of two people lying in bed on top of a mat with electrodes.

Apple's invention relates to a monitoring system capable of measuring a plurality of vital signs for one or more users. The monitoring system can include a plurality of sensors including, but not limited to, electrodes, piezoelectric sensors, temperature sensors, and accelerometers.

System for Intensity Level of an Exercise using photoplethysmogram (PPG)

Apple was granted another health related patent today under 10,512,406 that relates to determining an intensity level of an exercise using a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor.

More specifically, Apple's patent relates to a method for improving an accuracy of a wearable device while calculating an intensity level of an exercise for a user during an exercise session. The method can include: measuring, by a first heart rate sensor of the wearable device, a first heart rate of the user during the exercise session, wherein the first heart rate sensor can include a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor and the PPG sensor is configured to be worn adjacent to the user's skin; measuring, by a second heart rate sensor of a chest strap device, a second heart rate of the user during the exercise session, wherein the second heart rate sensor comprises an electrocardiogram (ECG) sensor.

In some embodiments, the method can include determining, by the processor circuit, a similarity between shapes of a first group of curves associated with the first heart rate and the second heart rate and shapes of a second group of curves associated with the experimental data from the library of experimental data.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below shows an example of a wearable device (Apple Watch); FIG. 2 depicts a block diagram of exemplary components that may be found within Apple Watch; FIG. 4 illustrates a method for creating and analyzing data from experiments.

Apple Watch Design Patent  

Continuing along with health related granted patents, Apple was granted a design patent today for the animated GUI on Apple Watch relating to physical activities.

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today