Apple looks to improve the Activity app on the Apple Watch

Apple has filed for a patent (number 20190232111) dubbed “Activity and Workout Updates” that involves improvements to the Activity app for the Apple Watch.

With the Activity app on your Apple Watch, you can track how much you move, exercise, and stand from day to day. You can check your progress for the day on the smartwatch, or check your entire history from the Activity app on your iPhone.

In the patent filing, Apple notes that approximately 133 million Americans currently suffer from at least one chronic health condition. This number is expected to rise to approximately 165 million by the year 2020. This deterioration in health can be attributed largely to a sedentary lifestyle with little to no physical activity. For example, lack of sufficient physical activity can increase the risk of developing diabetes, hypertension, colon cancer, depression and anxiety, obesity, and weak muscles and bones. In addition, recent studies have found that extended periods of inactivity (e.g., sitting at a desk), can lead to serious health risks, such as an increased risk of a heart attack. 

Apple says that some techniques for viewing and sharing activity data using electronic devices, however, are “generally cumbersome and inefficient.” For example, some existing techniques use a complex and time-consuming user interface, which may include multiple key presses Apple says that existing techniques require more time than necessary, wasting user time and device energy and wants to improve this.

Here’s the summary of the patent filing: “The present disclosure generally relates to navigating, viewing, and sharing activity and workout data and interacting with workout and/or activity applications. In some examples, scrolling of activity data is based on the content being displayed. 

“In some examples, friends' activity data may be viewed. In some examples, a notification and workout data for a friend's completed workout is received and displayed. In some example, the activity data received from friends is viewed and managed. In some examples, workout data for a multi-segment workout is displayed in a three-dimensional stack on a map. In some examples, a workout application operates in a limited mode until a touch input is received with a characteristic intensity that is greater than a threshold intensity.”

Of course, Apple files for — and is granted — lots of patents by the U.S. Patent & Trademark Office. Many are for inventions that never see the light of day. However, you never can tell which ones will materialize in a real product.