Gesture controls patented for Apple Watch

Moving your wrist could do a few things. It could maybe go through your applications, or dismiss an application. There could also be a time where a gesture can quickly make Apple Pay come up on the Apple Watch. The gestures also describe being able to interact with other devices, which could possibly be the iPhone.

The patent says, “Signals from the wristband sensors can be analyzed to identify a specific wrist gesture.” “The identified gesture can be interpreted to determine a function to be invoked, for instance by reference to a gesture library that maps specific wrist gestures to functions, or actions, of the wrist-worn device. In some embodiments, the interpretation of a wrist gesture can be context-dependent, e.g., depending on what if any operations are in progress on the wrist-worn device when the gesture is made; thus, the same wrist gesture can initiate different functions in different contexts. In some embodiments, the function or action invoked by a wrist gesture can including sending control signals to another device that is in communication with the wrist-worn device, thereby allowing wrist gestures to be used for remote control.”

At the end of the description, it tells us some pretty interesting information, where the Apple Watch could be used as a remote control. Can you imagine controlling music and videos using gestures? I would imagine this feature would also work well with the Apple TV.

So, why does this matter?

In order for the Apple Watch to stand out from other wearable devices, Apple needs to keep adding new features to the device. Android Wear already offers gesture support, so they aren't necessarily new, however, it did mention that the Apple Watch might allow us to interact with other devices is fascinating, and something we haven't seen before.