Malcolm Owen
The rumored temperature sensor in the Apple Watch Series 8 could provide the ability to detect if the wearer has a fever, as part of its enhanced fitness-tracking capabilities.
Expected in late 2022, the Apple Watch Series 8 is widely anticipated to include some form of body temperature sensing feature as part of its annual update. In a report on Sunday, it is thought that the sensor could provide enough of a reading to determine if the user is enduring a fever.
According to Mark Gurman's "Power On" newsletter for Bloomberg, the Apple Watch Series 8 will include the feature in its standard model, as well as an updated rugged edition. Not all models will gain temperature readings, as an updated Apple Watch SE probably won't have it.
For models that do, Gurman says the feature won't provide a specific reading to the user, but should "be able to tell if it believes you have a fever." Much like other detection systems in the Apple Watch, it could then make a recommendation for the user to use a dedicated thermometer for a more accurate reading, or to contact their doctor.
Outside of the temperature sensor, Gurman doubles down on the claim that it will have the same effective processing power as the Apple Watch Series 6, though there has apparently been some talk of updated displays in some models.
William Gallagher
Christine McKee
AppleInsider Staff
Chip Loder
5 Comments
Ooohh....and if ovulating.
Too soon.
Be great if it could use the same sensor to detect oncoming heat stroke.
Especially since it looks as if we're going to be living with higher temperatures from now on...
Waiting for blood pressure sensor and mgmt !
Sammy has it for a couple of years … why is Apple being late ?
There are several sensors that I would value in the watch.. One of them is likely fairly straightforward and would be useful.
UV. sensor on the watch to give me a realtime view of the local and actual UV exposure in the sun when on the beach and out and about. Extra credit for using the skin proximate sensors to approximate my sensitivity by measuring skin tone.
Temperature sensor as mentioned for the body.
Blood pressure sensor would be amazing.
Blood sugar sensor would be magic and used to merge with other data sets. A useful thing would be to gauge when feeling tired and the body really just needs a snack rather than rocket fuel injection of coffee. Coffee consumption can be easily tracked using heart rate etc.
Augmented blood oxygen sensor and models to improve measurement fidelity and usefulness.
Augmented heart beat rhythm sensor suite and models. I would love to see if possible to do a data merge with multiple sensors to measure emotional stress. I.e. as an example a person not doing physical activity having heightened heart rate, changed oxygen levels in blood, temperature, perhaps the heart rhythm is influenced etc.
What I find interesting is that it would not need to be accurate. It needs to be precise, that is reliably get a measurement of temperature with a small scatter in data points. Then it just has to alert you if the reading goes up by a couple of degrees. What it reads as the baseline temperature is irrelevant. Being above the baseline is. This would also automatically correct for variation in people’s baseline temperature. 98.6F is an average, a lot of people normally run a degree or so above or below that.