The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office officially published a series of 64 newly granted patents for Apple Inc. today. In this particular report we cover two health related patents issued to Apple today. The first covers AirPods and stretch exercise instructions and Yoga for Apple Watch. Our report also covers a design patent issued for Apple's MacBook Air and 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.

AirPods Related to Exercise Guidance

Apple was granted patent 10,715,902 today that covers AirPods that provide sensors to gather orientation information such as accelerometer measurements during user movements. An iPhone may communicate wirelessly with the AirPods and may form part of an AirPods system that supplies the user with coaching and feedback while evaluating user performance of a head movement routine or other exercise routine.

Apple's patent FIG. 2 below is a perspective view of an illustrative AirPods; FIG. 3 is a side view of an illustrative ear bud located in an ear of a user; FIG. 7 is a flow chart of illustrative steps involved in using a system having wearable electronic devices such as AirPods.

In the big picture, the invention relates proper form in stretches prior, during and after a workout. Apple provides specific context that defines the title of Apple's invention as follows: "These stretch positions, which may sometimes be referred to as user head poses, user head tilts, neck stretches, poses, etc., may be used to help stretch and relax the muscles in a user's upper body."

The exercise that may use head movements such as left tilt, forward tilt, right tilt, and back tilt does in fact in one scenario relate to "yoga" according to Apple, which is a nice Segway into Apple's second patent dedicated to Yoga exercises using Apple Watch.

Apple Watch: Yoga

Before it was a real App on Apple Watch, it was a Patent application for Yoga on a future Apple Watch which was introduced in 2018. Today Apple was granted patent 10,709,933 titled "Pose and heart rate energy expenditure for yoga."

Apple notes that invention generally relates to improving calorie expenditure prediction and tracking and, more particularly, to techniques for determining energy expenditure based on a user's poses and heart rate in yoga. More specifically, Apple states that their invention relates to a method for improving the accuracy of a wearable device while calculating an energy expenditure of a user practicing yoga.

In some embodiments, the method can include: detecting, by a processor circuit of a wearable device, a start of a yoga session; measuring, by a heart rate sensing module of the wearable device, a heart rates of the user, wherein the heart rate sensing module comprises a photoplethysmogram (PPG) sensor and the PPG sensor is configured to be worn adjacent to the user's skin; measuring, by a temperature sensing module of the wearable device, ambient temperature; collecting, by a motion sensing module of the wearable device, motion data of the user; determining by the processor circuit, a type of yoga practiced by the user based on the measured ambient temperature and the collected motion data; selecting an energy expenditure model associated with the determined type of yoga; detecting an end of the yoga session; calculating an energy expenditure of the user based on at least the measured heart rate and the selected energy expenditure model; and outputting the calculated energy expenditure of the user during the yoga session.

Apple's patent FIG. 1 below shows a Future Apple Watch in context with Yoga exercise; FIG. 6 is a flowchart showing the calculation of a user's energy expenditure during a yoga session and FIG. 4above is a diagram showing yoga poses.

Apple Wins MacBook Design Patent Today

The Remaining Patents granted to Apple Today