Your Apple Watch May Be Able to Detect Harmful Gases

With the invention of the Apple Watch, we have seen numerous ways that the device itself can improve our lives. Think about it for a moment, the Watch has given us the ability to check messages without picking up our phone. In fact, the newest models allow you to even take phone calls without needing your phone. The Watch itself has a lot of productivity functionality built into it, but it will also allow you to monitor your health by way of exercise, nutrition, sleep, heart rate etc. Apple has talked about taking it up a notch and being able to monitor things like your blood sugar levels if you’re diabetic. This kind of technology, however, could open our lives up to so much more.

Take a moment to think about something that you monitor in your life. There is a good chance that the Apple Watch will be able to do that someday. And I’m not talking about silly things. I’m talking about monitoring things in your life. And I don’t think I’m too far off with this one. Recently, Apple has been granted a patent for sensors that could detect the presence of harmful gases like carbon monoxide. It makes sense, doesn’t it? If your carbon monoxide detector could detect carbon monoxide, what about your Watch? Why not your Watch?

Having these kinds of sensors built into an Apple Watch could save a lot of lives. Recently, Apple included a fall sensor, which would detect if someone fell. We already know that this has helped as a life saving method. Whether or not the person would have died as a result of the falls are unclear, but we know that the sensor itself will notify emergency services, if you’re unable to respond to the signal. To me, that sounds like a life saving measure, and I’m happy to know that the newer Watches have it built in.

But think about the kind of devastation that carbon monoxide can have. Even if it doesn’t kill you, it can have serious health implications. Carbon monoxide is often undetected, and is a result of leaks in your furnace, for example. These leaks can be minuscule and not even detectable by the naked eye. As I said – this doesn’t always lead to death, but it can lead to serious long term illnesses, and I think for this reason alone, we should be thanking Apple for this kind of technology integration.

I definitely love the fact that I can practice deep breathing on my Watch or know that I slept for 6 hours and 24 minutes last night. But I cannot stress how beneficial I think these health sensors and monitors are to people using the devices. I also think that its very forward thinking of Apple to invest in these kinds of technologies. Sure, knowing how many steps I take in a day is great, but knowing that my heart rate has increased suddenly and I haven’t moved is also a really good thing. Keep up the good work, Apple.