Posted by Heba El-Sayed
Friday, February 24, 2023 09:00 AM
It appears that Apple’s long-term quest to bring blood glucose monitoring to “Apple WatchMoving forward, Bloomberg sources claim that the company’s untinged eye is in the “proof of concept stage” and is good enough that it could be brought to market once it gets smaller.
The technology, which uses a laser to measure glucose concentration under the skin, was previously the size of a tabletop, but the report claims it has advanced to the point where a wearable prototype the size of an iPhone is in the works.
Insiders say the system won’t help People with diabetes Not only will it monitor their conditions, but it will also ideally alert people with diabetes. They can then make changes that prevent type 2 (adult-onset) diabetes, Engadget reported.
Presumably, the project has been in development for a long time, starting in 2010, when an ailing Steve Jobs asked his company to buy blood glucose monitoring startup RareLight.
The report notes that Apple has kept the effort a secret by operating it as a seemingly isolated company, Avolonte Health, but has folded it into the previously unknown Exploratory Design Group (XDG).
And any real-world product could potentially be years away, according to Bloomberg.
In 2018 Alphabet’s health subsidiary Verily canceled plans for a smart contact lens that would have tracked glucose using tears.
In other words, even major brands with vast resources do not guarantee success, and it is not clear how accurate Apple’s solution is, according to the Engadget report.
But there are strong incentives to bring this technology to wearables.
The Apple Watch is often marketed as a health device and can detect signs of atrial fibrillation, low blood oxygen levels, and ovulatory cycles (as of Series 8).
Non-intrusive glucose monitoring can make it an indispensable tool for those with diabetes — you won’t need a dedicated device that invades your skin, like a continuous glucose sensor that sends information from a thin needle with electrode to an external receiver.
This painless approach could give the Apple Watch an edge over competing smartwatches.
