Apple invention shows wearable file transfer through handshakes

 

What if you could easily transfer your contact information from your Apple Watch to someone else’s Apple Watch through something as simple as a handshake? A new Apple patent titled “Gesture-based Information Exchange Between Devices in Proximity” details that sort of file transfer technology.

In the patent summary, Apple describes creating a file exchange during a “greeting event,” which it says could be anything as simple as a handshake, a hug, a bow or a hand slap (high-five!). Apple said that sort of physical exchange could kick off the transfer of data such as contact information, location data and more.
“Users can control and customize what information their devices send in a context-specific manner; this can allow users to manage and control the sharing of personal data and/or other information items according to their preferences while still allowing the exchange to occur automatically (without being expressly initiated by the user),” Apple explains. Data can also transfer between various devices, such as phones or payment terminals, the latter of which is already available with Apple Pay.
Patently Apple, which discovered the patent, also highlighted Apple’s intentions to get this sort of system to work with all sorts of wearables, including rings, eyeglasses, belts, shoes, scarfs and more. Believe it or not, as Google has already revealed, those sorts of wearables may not be that far off.