In 2018, Apple introduced drop detection with the Apple Watch 4 And now it appears that Apple is working on ways to improve this in future wearables

Before we get into that, let's review a few things In current wearables (and perhaps even in the upcoming Apple Watch 6), Apple looks for a series of indicators that may indicate a fall and then sends a notification asking if you are okay If you do not respond in a timely manner, the Apple Watch will contact emergency services on your behalf, informing the paramedics that the owner has fallen and providing a location so that an ambulance can be dispatched In addition, Apple Watch will also contact your emergency contacts to ensure everything is in order

And now, Apple seems to be going even further: a new set of patents, first discovered by Apple's sharp-eyed patent watchers at Patently Apple, show that the extra data the watch can figure out about you can be used as additional useful The company is looking at how it might build on this by using it as information

"Information about the user's past health can help emergency services identify what type of medical attention is needed and what type of technician should be sent to where the user is," the patents suggest" Health metrics that can be calculated using the electrodes include, but are not limited to, cardiac function (ECG, EKG), water content, body fat percentage, galvanic skin resistance, and combinations thereof"

The keen-eyed reader will notice that not all of the above metrics are measurable by the current Apple Watch However, even if galvanic skin resistance is not added soon, if you and your smart scale faithfully fill in the gaps in age, height, weight, BMI, etc, the iPhone's accompanying app, Health, may be able to help

So while a basic call to emergency services from your Apple Watch currently tells them where you are and that you fell, future wearables could share all sorts of additional data, including your age, weight, heart rate, BMI, and exercise frequency Sure, you might be a little put off by such information being shared, but when it comes to life and death, most people would agree that data privacy should temporarily take a backseat

Of course, it is important to remember that just because Apple patents something does not necessarily mean that it will become a commercial product That said, given that it is based on technology that already exists and that Apple rightly admires, the patent seems a bit more likely; it may not make it into the Apple Watch Series 6, but fingers crossed it will make it into the inevitable Series 7