Apple Watch has saved lives, yet again. A US man has said the device saved his girlfriend and him while on a trek in the mountains. The man, 28-year-old James Prudenciano, said the device dialled 911 after detecting a hard fall.
Prudenciano said he and his date Paige Paruso were hiking in Hartshorne Woods Park in New Jersey when the mishap happened, IANS reported. The couple was lost in the woods and fell through some foliage and over a steep cliff, the agency said. Though Prudenciano suffered three fractures as he fell into a river and landed on a rock, his date was not hurt.
Being lost in the woods and wounded would have spelt series trouble for man and woman but for the timely intervention of the Apple Watch that Prudenciano was wearing. The Fall Detection feature in the Watch immediately detected the hard fall and dialled 911. The man's mother also received three text messages that alerted her about the emergency situation that the couple was going through.
The report explains how the rescue feature works on Apple Watch. "In Apple Watch Series 4 and Series 5, the next-generation accelerometre and gyroscope are more powerful. Custom algorithms use data from both sensors to analyse wrist trajectory and impact acceleration, so that the Apple Watch can determine if and when a hard fall has occurred," explains the report.
Prudenciano narrated the dire situation he was in, in a chat with News 12. "I looked down and I noticed it was a straight drop to rocks and water ... I was screaming that I'm going to die because I really felt I was going to die. There was no way out of this for me," he said.
In another incident last month, a man from Washington was saved after Apple Watch Series 4 alerted his son about a fall he suffered while biking.
Interestingly, Prudenciano man had set the fall detection feature on in his device, a report in 9to5Mac says. Usually, Apple Watch detects if a user has remained motionless for one minute and places an emergency call automatically. But this feature is automatically enabled for users over age 65. In this case, Prudenciano had apparently set the feature on.
