Future Apple Watch models might use your sweat to see if you're healthy

Some people like to sweat because it indicates that they have enjoyed a strenuous workout. Others hate to sweat because it means that they are too hot or have been placed in an uncomfortable situation. But who knew that their sweat could be used to collect data containing information about their health? Apple engineers did which is why the company has filed a patent application titled "Wearable Devices With Perspiration Measurement Capabilities."

The device that Apple is focusing this patent application on is, of course, the Apple Watch. And if that isn't clear from the idea written in the application that the sweat will "provide a user with information relating to their health and fitness," the illustrations accompanying the patent application clearly are of an Apple Watch.

Apple says in the application filed with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO, via PatentlyApple), "Other embodiments are directed to a device for calculating a perspiration metric of a user, where the device includes a housing having a skin-facing exterior surface, a perspiration sensor that includes a first electrode and a second electrode, and a processor configured to calculate the perspiration metric using the perspiration sensor." Apple adds that a second perspiration sensor could be included and measurements from this sensor could be used to calculate the perspiration metric. The latter could be stored in the memory of an Apple Watch.

The patent application also states that when an Apple Watch user is exercising such as walking, or running, or cycling, the device might compute an estimated sweat rate "over a first interval of time corresponding to the exercise session. This will help the user know about "the total fluid loss over the course of the session." A shorter interval of time, maybe five seconds, can be used to deliver an instantaneous sweat rate so that the user will "be able to understand their current rate of fluid loss at any given point of the exercise session, as well as their total fluid loss over the exercise session."

Not every patent application Apple files results in a new patent. And not every new patent becomes a new feature on an Apple device. However, this does make some sense for the Apple Watch although the tech giant will have to come up with a name for the feature that doesn't make users think of sweat.