Apple AirPods are not just for listening to music, at least, for Apple. The company has big plans for the earbuds and improving the audio or battery life aren't the only ideas.
Apple reportedly plans on adding cameras to its Airpods to let AI get a sense of the environment around the user. The company also wants AirPods to help track certain biometrics like heart rate and body temperature, but a new patent suggests Apple may want the earbuds to do even more.
The AirPods maker wants the earbuds to use sensors to help detect different metrics from the body and use machine learning to determine if someone has a health problem, according to a report from Patently Apple.
The tech would work by using the sensors in the AirPods to determine certain fitness metrics as a baseline such as how steady a person walks and their breathing patterns. Once it develops a baseline for the user, over time the sensors would pick up more data from the user such as abnormal walking patterns, grinding teeth, or joints cracking.
This data combined with timestamps and location data would then be analyzed by AI to pick up any possible patterns that could be related to some sort of health ailment. The goal would be for the AirPods to help determine a health problem before it becomes serious.
Apple didn't immediately respond to a request for comment about this new patent.
Will AirPods be the next fitness wearable?
As interesting as this tech might sound, it will likely be years before it can be implemented, if it ever is. Apple files a lot of patents for tech that doesn't reach the public.
If Apple does move forward with this tech, it will still take time before the public will be able to buy one of these health-focused AirPods. The primary reason is that tech involving a user's health typically has to receive approval from a federal regulator like the Food and Drug Administration (FDA).
Last year, the AirPods Pro 2's hearing aid feature had to clear the FDA hurdle before it was made available to users. The FDA conducted a clinical study of 118 people to determine if the AirPods feature provided similar improvements to hearing aids without adverse effects.
For Apple, testing is still underway for AirPods monitoring a wearer's heart rate and body temperature. If Apple gets these monitors working soon, we could see them being featured at the Worldwide Developer Conference in June.
You must confirm your public display name before commenting
Please logout and then login again, you will then be prompted to enter your display name.
