Imagine if a simple fist bump with a fellow Apple Watch wearer could enable functions like wirelessly exchanging personal information. No finger taps or screen swiping required.
That's the future reality envisioned by a new patent filed by Apple and published online last week.
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The wrist-mounted device described in the patent isn't referred to as an Apple Watch, but based on some of the details surfaced by Patently Apple, it's safe to assume that the Apple Watch is the focus here.
In Apple's filing, the motions that would initialize data transfers are described as "greeting events" in which " devices are in proximity and the users of the devices concurrently execute a greeting gesture."
Included in the list of inventions are the ability for two wrist device users to share data when both people engage in a similar gesture, such as a handshake, fist bump, hand slap and, for Asia-based users, even a mutual bow.
Along with those greeting events, contextual information would also be available, including the user's location and even activity data (the biggest tip off, after the illustrations, that this is all about the Apple Watch).
The devices, as described by Apple, would detect each other using a combination of Bluetooth LE or NFC-based proximity sensors and internal accelerometers, and data transfer would be effected using either Wi-Fi, NFC or Bluetooth.
Of course, Apple has a number of patents that have never resulted in anything consumers can buy, but in this case, the descriptions are just a little too close to the Apple Watch to deny. Those Apple Watch fist bump commercials are probably already dancing around in the marketing minds of someone in Cupertino.