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GoogleGranted patentWearablesInterest 6/10

Google patents secure camera access for smartwatches

Patent drawing
Patent drawing from the official filing.

Google describes a system that creates a secure, isolated area on a phone to handle data from a wearable device's camera. This protected module encrypts and decrypts the camera data, ensuring that other apps on the phone cannot see the private information. It also processes the data to understand the user's context, such as their current activity or environment.

Why it mattersThis is interesting because it shows how companies are building technical barriers to keep sensitive camera data from smartwatches and glasses private, even when the data is being used by the phone itself.

In the filing’s own words

Techniques include adding a trusted wearable services module to a sandbox/isolated module on the companion device. e.g., to Private Compute Core. This trusted wearable services module has a secure connection to the camera on the wearable device and prevents other modules on the companion device from viewing the private data. The trusted wearable services has the ability to encrypt and decrypt data from the camera and also performs the processing used to determine user context in an ambient sensing situation.

What exactly they claim (claim 1)

1. A method, comprising: receiving, by a first module of a companion device connected to a wearable device, a request, from a second module of the companion device, to determine a user context of a user wearing the wearable device, the first module isolating, from the second module, data acquired from a sensor of the wearable device; receiving, from the wearable device, encrypted data acquired with the sensor, the encrypted data being the data after an encryption; and determining the context of the user based on the data.

Facts

Company
Google (Google LLC)
Official title
Sandboxing for separating access to trusted and untrusted wearable peripherals
Patent number
US12748632B2
Application number
18859082
Filed
Apr 25, 2023
Granted
Sep 29, 2026
Inventors
2
Claims
24

Classified under

G06F 9/505 Physics & computingG02B 27/017 Physics & computingG06F 1/163 Physics & computingG06F 3/012 Physics & computingG06F 3/013 Physics & computingG06F 9/45558 Physics & computing
Read the full filing (official PDF) ↗ Open in the Patent Tracker

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Summaries are simplified from the filing’s own abstract and first claim. A patent filing is not a product announcement.
Patent data and drawings: U.S. Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO). Nebula is not affiliated with or endorsed by the USPTO.