In 2017, Apple acquired Beddit, a Finnish technology company. From what I  could tell, not much has changed with the product over the last six years, even though we've covered at least five of Apple's patents (01, 02, 03, 04 and 05) showing their ongoing work on the product. This week, another Beddit-related patent surfaced covering sensors capable of detecting bed occupancy based on reflective or transmissive detection (or non-detection) of electromagnetic radiation using one or more antennas. Apple notes that it's desirable to have reliable determination of bed occupancy, such that various in-bed sensors can be triggered for operation. These in-bed sensors can be used to detect various physiological parameters and conditions of the user. Are we nearing Beddit 2.0? Only time will tell. 

Occupancy Detection Using In-Bed Sensors

Apple's invention is directed to an in-bed device having one or more substrates, a wireless transceiver, an antenna coupled to the wireless transceiver, and a control system. The one or more substrates may be shaped to be positioned on a bed. The wireless transceiver may be disposed on at least one of the one or more substrates, and configured to transmit and receive wireless pulses via the antenna. The control system may be configured to cause the wireless transceiver to generate the wireless pulses and analyze the received wireless pulses to determine whether the bed is occupied by a user.

In addition, the system includes sensors capable of detecting bed occupancy based on reflective or transmissive detection (or non-detection) of electromagnetic radiation using one or more antennas, and to a sensor system including such sensors.

Bed occupancy detection is a useful component for sleep products (e.g., in-bed sensor mats). Similarly, presence detection can be useful for other products (e.g., to determine whether a user is sitting in a chair, sitting or lying on a couch or examination table, or otherwise present (or “on”) a surface).

In-bed detection enables a sleep product to detect when a user is in-bed or out-of-bed, and this determination can then be used to trigger other sensors embedded in the mat (e.g., to turn the sensors on so that the sensors can collect data).

Additionally, in-bed detection can be used to conveniently trigger operations by other devices (e.g., local or remote devices) that perform functions such as locking/unlocking a door, turning on/off music or a light, and so on.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below shows an example in-bed device #100 that may be placed on a bed or other surfaces for detecting bed occupancy. The in-bed device may be used to sense biological vibrations (e.g., chest cavity vibrations or sounds, nasal cavity vibrations or sounds, abdominal cavity vibrations or sounds, and the like) made by a person lying on a bed #102, a couch, a chair, an examination table, or the like.

In addition to biological vibrations, the in-bed device may sense other mechanical vibrations, pressures, forces, touches, displacements, temperatures, and so on. The in-bed device may also or alternatively provide haptic feedback to a user who is lying or otherwise positioned on or near the in-bed device.

In some embodiments, the in-bed device may include a sensing and/or haptic feedback mat #104 (or strip).

Apple's patent FIG. 2A above shows a top view of a first example in-bed device #200 that incorporates reflective detection (or non-detection) of electromagnetic radiation, using a single antenna. 

Apple's patent FIG. 3A Above shows a top view of a in-bed device #300 that incorporates transmissive detection (or non-detection) of electromagnetic radiation using a pair of antennas.

In some embodiments, in response to detecting that the bed is occupied by the user, the control system 302 may turn on a sensor configured to capture a parameter (e.g., a physiological parameter such as blood pressure, heart rate) of the user.

For more details, review Apple's patent application #US 20230065778 A1.

Apple Inventors

• Wegene Tadele: Apple Watch EE Tech Lead
• Rob Parnell: Wearable System EE

It was a big week for Apple patents relating to Health technology. Below are the other four published this week by the U.S. Patent Office:

• Apple Patent reveals their work on new Health & Specialty Sensors for Apple Watch & Band, Smartglasses, AirPods, iDevices and more. Patent 01
• A new Smart Fabric patent from Apple reveals how Health Sensors could be integrated into a future Apple Watch band & more. Patent 02
• Apple Invents Methods to Improve the User Experience for Always-On and even Temporarily Donned Blood Pressure Measurement Devices. Patent 03
• Apple Invents a new Ambulatory Blood Pressure Cuff able to deliver more accurate readings than can be obtained at a Healthcare Office. Patent 04