- A June 30 Apple patent points to a "vein scanning device" that could one day detect gestures in the Apple Watch.
- AppleInsider first spotted the patent, which discusses using infrared sensors to map out the veins in the hand to understand the movements of the palm and digits.
- Apple might be using this tech for increased accessibility, or maybe to integrate a virtual reality experience with the iPhone.
Whether you're handling raw meat, changing your oil, or in the grocery store checkout line and you haven't hit the hand sanitizer yet, there are some situations in which you don't want to touch your Apple Watch. And while Siri can help with that—all you have to do is raise the device to your mouth to trigger the voice assistant—Apple is also apparently working on another option for touchless commands: sensors that measure your veins.
In a June 30 patent, which AppleInsider first spotted, inventor Michael R. Brennan, a machine learning software engineer at Apple, describes a system to "automatically [determine] a user's gesture and/or finger positions based on one or more properties of the user's veins."
The idea is to use an array of sensors, including an infrared camera, to capture images of the user's hand to sort of diagram the veins' positioning within a user's hand. The device could then covert those images to a digital map that recognizes when a person makes different hand or finger movements, based on the changes in the veins.
Depending on those hand gestures, the device in question—the patent mentions a "wristwatch-like device"—can perform specific commands. So it sounds like you could one day raise your pointer finger to open an exercise app, for example, or perhaps ball up your hand into a fist to stop audio.
Or maybe this is Apple's step toward better accessibility. Some users can't speak or hear, rendering Siri useless, and those with limited mobility or agility in their arms and hands might struggle to tap the touchscreen on an Apple Watch. Creating a language of on-device gestures to control various Apple Watch functions could be a clever way to make sure everyone can equally enjoy the technology.
But there's another interesting possibility here: Late last year, rumors began circulating that Apple has plans for an augmented reality (AR) headset and, later, AR glasses. Those will supposedly drop in 2022 and 2023, respectively, so the timeline makes sense.
Imagine playing a game on your iPhone, with a connected Apple VR headset, and fighting zombies by punching them in virtual space, with your Apple Watch picking up on every movement, à la Nintendo Wii or Switch. If that sounds farfetched, remember Apple launched its own game service, called Apple Arcade, last fall.
Then there's the possibility that Apple might not want to do anything at all with the technology other than sit on it to keep competitors from pursuing the idea. After all, patents are a strategic way to lay claim to moonshots that may never take off. Just consider some of the company's other wild patents, from an iPhone that has a curved screen to another for a foldable iPhone.
