Apple acquired Finnish tech company Beddit in May 2017 and just hasn’t done much with it in the past six years. According to a list published this week by the U.S. Trademark and Patent Office, Apple was granted a patent for a Beddit-related technology.
According to the patent description, Apple uses one or more antennas to detect various physiological parameters and conditions of the user lying on the bed by using the reflection or transmission of electromagnetic radiation.
The complete system involves one or more substrates, a wireless transceiver, an antenna coupled to the wireless transceiver, and a control system. The base plate can be fixed at a certain position on the bed, connected through a wireless transceiver, and sends and receives wireless pulses via an antenna.
The system can be integrated into mattresses and other supplies to detect whether someone is lying on the bed, understand when the user goes to bed, and sleep status, and analyze this information to provide useful sleep suggestions.
Apple released the first Beddit sleep tracker in 2018. The updated Beddit 3.5 sleep monitor is thinner than the old model and can be placed under a sheet to track body movements throughout the night.
