Glucose Monitoring ‘Smart Bands’ Rumored for Future Apple Watch

A future-generation of the Apple Watch could boast the ability to monitor its owner’s blood-glucose levels directly through their skin via a unique “modular band”, which was previously divulged in an Apple patent published earlier this year, according to unnamed sources who revealed details about the tech-giant’s imminent plans to BGR this morning.

Rumors concerning a diabetes-monitoring Apple Watch first surfaced last month, when a CNBC report revealed that Apple had formed a “secret team” of biomedical scientists and engineers to aid in developing a non-invasive, through-the-skin method by which an Apple Watch could double as a medical diagnostic tool for diabetes patients. Sources indicated Apple has hired as many as 200 PhDs over the past year, as part of the company’s burgeoning efforts to position the Apple Watch as a must-have medical diagnostic tool — in addition to its primary role as a leading wearable in the health and physical fitness space.

While the previous report had cited that Apple’s glucose monitoring function may be made manifest via the shining of a bright light through the skin, however, BGR’s sources suggested that Apple is gearing up to implement a ‘game-changing’ glucose monitoring feature, which may be implemented via inter-changeable (modular) bands compatible with a future Apple Watch.

Interestingly, Apple was granted a patent back in early 2016 which covered this “modular Apple Watch bands” concept. Though quirky and unconventional as it may seem, the patent essentially explained how an Apple Watch could be outfitted with a variety of different modular bands. For example, one band could house a series of small batteries that would be able to keep a user’s Apple Watch powered longer than the built-in battery. Likewise, other modular bands could house a camera, health utilities, and a seemingly limitless variety of other features that could be added to the Apple Watch without further complicating its existing interface.

It’s highly possible, according to BGR’s sources that Apple’s glucose monitoring apparatus could take on the form of a modular Apple Watch band, which could be changed at the user’s discretion for the purpose of retrieving an accurate reading of their glucose levels via Apple’s Health app, for example.

“Apple has identified the right part of the body and there’s so much more they can and intend to do with the watch,” the source added, indicating that glucose monitoring is just the tip of the iceberg insofar as what types of modular bands could be sold to customers who want to maximize their Watch’s potential. For instance, by creating modular bands, Apple could open up the way for a variety of FDA-approved diagnostic tools to be implemented into Apple Watch bands, effectively making the future-generation wearable a ‘one-stop-shop’ for health and fitness enthusiasts.

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