Apple could be working on a sleep-tracking mattress: Details here
What's the story
After dominating the category of wearables and smartphones, Apple appears to be working on something bigger for its fans - a smart mattress. The device, detailed in a USPTO patent filed by the company, may serve as a critical tool to monitor the sleep of one or more individuals, gathering important data on their health - without causing any discomfort. Here's all about it.
Problems
Sleep monitoring comes with several problems
Typically, the process of active sleep monitoring requires a lot of bulky and expensive equipment. The requirements are such that most of the tracking attempts are carried out at dedicated facilities, where some devices may also be attached to the patient's body. This ultimately disrupts their sleep, defeating the whole purpose of conducting the analysis in the first place.
Solution
However, Apple's solution could finally solve these problems
To tackle these problems, Apple has suggested a tech-rigged mat that could be used on the personal bed of a person for sleep monitoring. The mat, according to the company, could either lie under (as a mattress) or over (as a blanket) a person, recording critical data like "heart rate, heart rate variability, respiratory rate, respiratory rate variability, user's motion, and user's temperature".
Impact
Then, the collected data could help with healthcare
Apple notes that the collected data could ultimately enable the device to "analyze the user's sleep, provide feedback and suggestions to the user, and/or can adjust or control the environmental conditions to improve the user's sleep." Controlling environmental conditions could include things like tweaking room temperature according to the temperature of the body or starting an alarm to wake up the user if needed.
Plan
No word on when we will see this 'smart mat'
Apple could use the expertise of Beddit - a sleep-tracker manufacturer it had acquired a few years ago - for this product, but there is nothing confirmed at this stage. The product has just been detailed in a patent, which means Apple may or may not go ahead with its production and eventual launch in the market.