{"id":379,"date":"2016-03-16T10:42:23","date_gmt":"2016-03-16T14:42:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/?p=379"},"modified":"2016-03-16T10:46:15","modified_gmt":"2016-03-16T14:46:15","slug":"will-your-smartwatch-save-your-life","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/2016\/03\/16\/will-your-smartwatch-save-your-life\/","title":{"rendered":"Will Your Smartwatch Save Your Life?"},"content":{"rendered":"

The love affair with smartphones has led to further rapture with smartwatches<\/a>. Right now, we can act like Dick Tracy, with the world on our wrists within these tiny smartwatch gadgets. But these smartwatches might not all be about work, communications, and fun and games. Why? Because there is the potential that smartwatches might evolve soon to have the capability of saving lives.<\/p>\n

We know that smartwatches presently have health sensors that can monitor steps taken, flights climbed, and heartbeat rates for exercise and physical fitness purposes. And Apple, ever on the cutting edge, apparently believes that it can go further to use such monitoring capabilities to facilitate calls for help during health emergencies<\/a>.<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

As recently reported by Time<\/i>, a new Apple patent application, unearthed by Apple Insider<\/em>, describes a potential feature that would have smartwatches call for help if the devices pick up monitoring information that suggests that users are having medical emergencies. For\u00a0example, an Apple Watch might detect that a wearer’s heartbeat is tremendously high or low, and in such event, it could push a signal that would call for medical assistance.<\/p>\n

The Apple Watch\u00a0owner in advance would set up a list of pre-established contacts who would be contacted in an emergency — perhaps 911, the owner’s doctor, and the owner’s spouse. Indeed, there would be two levels of “care” lists — one for personal contacts like family and friends, and another for 911 and emergency services.<\/p>\n

You might already think that your smartwatch is one of your best friends. But if\u00a0your device eventually saves your life, BFF status likely would be cemented forever between you and\u00a0your smartwatch.<\/p>\n

Stay tuned and let’s see if Apple is awarded a patent for this\u00a0asserted invention and whether Apple later rolls out this potentially life-saving feature on its smartwatches in\u00a0the future.<\/p>\n

Eric Sinrod (@EricSinrod on Twitter<\/a>) is a partner in the San Francisco office of Duane Morris LLP, where he focuses on litigation matters of various types, including information technology and intellectual property disputes. You can read his professional biography here. To receive a weekly email link to Mr. Sinrod’s columns, please email him at<\/em> ejsinrod@duanemorris.com<\/em><\/a> with Subscribe in the Subject line. This column is prepared and published for informational purposes only and should not be construed as legal advice. The views expressed in this column are those of the author and do not necessarily reflect the views of the author’s law firm or its individual partners.<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The love affair with smartphones has led to further rapture with smartwatches. Right now, we can act like Dick Tracy, with the world on our wrists within these tiny smartwatch gadgets. But these smartwatches might not all be about work, communications, and fun and games. Why? Because there is the potential that smartwatches might evolve … <\/p>\n

Continue reading “Will Your Smartwatch Save Your Life?”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":54,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5],"tags":[612,502,611],"ppma_author":[876],"class_list":["post-379","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-infotechtelecom","tag-apple-watch","tag-eric-sinrod","tag-smartwatch"],"authors":[{"term_id":876,"user_id":54,"is_guest":0,"slug":"ejsinrod","display_name":"Eric J. Sinrod","avatar_url":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-content\/uploads\/sites\/17\/2014\/08\/sinroderic-125x150.jpg","0":null,"1":"","2":"","3":"","4":"","5":"","6":"","7":"","8":""}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/54"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=379"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/379\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=379"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=379"},{"taxonomy":"author","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/blogs.duanemorris.com\/techlaw\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ppma_author?post=379"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}