On April 14, 2020, Apple was granted 54 patents by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office and one of the patent is related to sensors that might be added to Apple Watch in the future to detect the environment of water and the makeup of water.

The new patent issued to Apple, titled “Portable electronic device as health companion,” describe the function of the incorporating sensors for identifying the water based on the detected property and initiate actions of the wearable device to send notifications to the user. For example, the Apple Watch would be able to warm users that there are sharks nearby when the users are swimming or snorkeling.

(Image: The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office )

The watch is designed with cavity so that when it is soaked in water, the sensor inside the cavity could distinguish the composition of the water and identify if it’s sweat of the user and further determined the pH level of the sweat. It can also detect if there are dangerous chemicals or harmful pathogens in the water and alert users.

Joanne Wu, Research Manager of LEDinside, Trendforce, noted that the sensors might be based on short-wave infrared light (SWIR) with infrared LEDs. The sensors identify compose of water by analyzing the reflectance of different substance in water.