Apple Glasses Could be the Company’s Next Health Device

Apple Glasses that use augmented reality have a lot of potential, like gaming and Apple Maps directions. What if health could be another feature?

Health Care

Apple sees health care as its next big industry to disrupt, with Tim Cook saying so in interviews. Like this one with Fortune (emphasis mine):

We’re extremely interested in this area. And, yes, it is a business opportunity. If you look at it, medical health activity is the largest or second-largest component of the economy, depending on which country in the world you’re dealing with. And it hasn’t been constructed in a way where the focus at the device level is making great products from a pure point of view. The focus has been on making products that can get reimbursed through the insurance companies, through Medicare, or through Medicaid. And so in some ways we bring a totally fresh view into this and say, ‘Forget all of that. What will help people?’

Through the Apple Watch, the company is making it easier to monitor our heart’s health through the EKG function. What health problem could Apple Glasses tackle? Glaucoma. Glaucoma is a disease that causes damage to your optic nerve and worsens over time. It can eventually cause vision loss without treatment. It’s a leading cause of blindness and everyone is at risk.

Glaucoma is detected with vision tests. See where I’m going with this? Some glaucoma tests involve shining a light into your eye. In 2017 a leaked document revealed some workplace injuries. A couple involved eye injuries where a prototype device shined lasers into someone’s eyes. Maybe lasers could be involved in glaucoma tests, but obviously Apple needs to make sure there is zero chance of eye injury.

What if Apple Glasses could also track your water/caffeine/alcohol/food intake? I imagine just holding up a glass of water and having the Glasses automatically log it using AI, whether it be Siri or a third-party app. When I sit down to eat lunch, it could log what I ate and give me a calorie estimation.

At the end of the week, I could get a notification: “Good job Andrew! You consumed less calories than last week!” Another idea: Tracking how much alcohol you consume and warning you to slow down. Although drunk people would ignore it.

Further Reading:

[Apple Bought Akonia, a Startup that Makes Lenses for AR Glasses]

[Apple’s Ecosystem Is Actually Your Body]