Apple

The Apple smart ring. Photo: Twitter/@HFGEnthusiast

Apple has reportedly been granted a smart ring patent

Apple was granted the patent on 15 October 2019.

Apple

The Apple smart ring. Photo: Twitter/@HFGEnthusiast

Apple is not sleeping on any new technology. The brand just introduced the Apple Watch Series 5 in September 2019, to keep ahead of the smartwatch craze and now they could be launching a smart ring.

Reports state that a newly filed patent could suggest the brand is looking to steal the wearables market. On Tuesday, 15 October 2019, Apple was granted a smart ring patent.

Apple granted a smart ring patent

Apple
The Apple smart ring. Photo: Twitter/@sabitarahim

The patent was discovered by Patently Apple. The website revealed that the patent was titled “devices, methods, and user interfaces for a wearable electronic ring computing device.”

The patent for a smart ring was actually filed by the company in 2015. The filing came one year before Microsoft filed patents for their own “ring-based” technology.

Then in September 2019, Amazon jumped on the bandwagon by announcing their very own smart ring. The company called it the Echo Loop.

What the smart ring could look like

Apple
The Apple smart ring. Photo: Twitter/@neirajones

According to diagrams from Patently Apple, the brand wants to create a smart ring that has “a touch-sensitive display with side buttons.” The ring will also feature a “dial control easily manipulated by the thumb when worn on the forefinger of the right hand.”

Another version of the smart ring shows it without a screen. This version only features “a touchpad on the inside of the ring,” according to T3.com.

The ring’s known specifications

Some of the specifications on the ring are quite similar to the brand’s smartwatch. It’s set to have health-monitoring biometrics which can be measured from the ring.

The microphones that are shown in the diagram are presumably for users to be able to make full use of Siri. This is in lieu of more complex controls which are only available on bigger devices.

Will the Apple ring replace the watch

Since Amazon’s Echo Loop is officially in the works, Apple’s new patent could allow the brand to give their competitors a serious run for their money. T3.com speculated that the smart ring could be the next best thing after the Apple Watch.

They questioned:

“Might this smaller, arguably simpler interface fully replace the Apple Watch, if it connects to your phone, Siri and other smart devices around the home?”

T3.com

However, depending on how the smart ring is received, the Apple Watch could stay in the market and work side-by-side with its anticipated successor.