Along with the usual fanfare surrounding the launch of the Apple Watch yesterday, there were perhaps atypical levels of cynicism about the device among unbelievers.Critics took aim at the battery life, its need to pair with an iPhone and the general lack of “disruptive” elements. Even fan boys and girls made comments like: “its second version will be worth buying”, or “the software will be the selling point”.There may be some truth in the latter point, because some hidden potential might lie in its health sensors' latent biometric identification capabilities.The same developers who've created mobile biometric apps that leverage the rich data generated by non-biometric hardware on the iPhone can now turn their efforts to the heart rate sensor, accelerometer and gyroscope on the watch.We already know that it works with Touch ID and Apple Pay, but at the launch Tim Cook also noted the “incredibly intimate” feature of capturing your heartbeat and sending it another person with an Apple Watch.One question is: Can this heartbeat also be used to authenticate someone's identity, payment or location without the need to manipulate a phone, as the Nymi band does? Other questions would then involve patent issues, and the robustness of such a solution. But then Apple has very deep pockets, and some of the best computer scientists.

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