Future Apple Watch model could detect when a user is drowning and summon help

The Apple Watch started out as a piece of digital jewelry that was featured in fashion magazines and worn on the wrists of models. But the timepiece now has a reputation for being a lifesaving tool thanks to the myriad of health features on the timepiece. The watch will monitor your heart rate, check your heart for abnormal rhythms, call emergency services if the user suffers a fall or is involved in a car crash, and more.

A new patent application filed by Apple with the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) gives us a clue about a new feature that Apple is considering for the Apple Watch. The patent, titled "Wearable Device Used As Digital Pool Attendant" reveals how an Apple Watch can determine if the user is drowning. If that determination is made by the watch, messages could be sent out to lifeguards, parents, pool attendants, gym employees, and bystanders who can call emergency services.

The Apple Watch would be trained to use its sensors to determine when a swimmer is showing signs of irregular behavior while in the water. The patent application notes, "In some embodiments, the swimming metrics and other information (e.g., heart rate, blood oxygen levels) are input into a machine learning model that has been trained to classify a swimmer showing regular or irregular behaviour when in the water."

Sensors such as the heart rate monitor and the pulse oximeter, which measures blood oxygen levels, would be very useful in determining whether an Apple Watch user is drowning. Apple writes in the patent application, "When a swimmer is in distress (e.g., due to a heart attack), the user's underwater behaviour becomes irregular. The irregular behaviour is reflected in the swimming analytics metrics and other information, such as heart rate or other vital signs." The feature could also warn lifeguards, pool attendants, and parents when a child has crossed into the deep end of the pool, according to the patent application. 

Apple points out that 3,500 people in the U.S. drown every year. The company also notes that while there are already systems available that combine live video feeds with object recognition software to determine if a swimmer is in trouble, those systems can produce false "drowning" readings and swimmers can also block the cameras.

Just because Apple filed this patent application last September, it does not mean that the company will be granted a patent. And even if it does, there is no guarantee that this technology will end up in a future iteration of the Apple Watch.