A new patent has just been awarded Apple on the control the AirPods with different parts of the body. And it is very likely that sooner or later it will be reality.
Simply because there are times when you can't be talking to Siri to turn the volume up or down, or change songs. With a gesture like touch your face, or chattering your teeth you could send an order to your AirPods. I do not see anything crazy.
PatentlyApple has detected a new license granted to Apple the sea of interesting. It is titled "Detecting input through the body on a portable audio device," and it describes a new type of sensor for a future pair of AirPods Pro headphones that would allow the headphone app to interpret specific gestures such as touching the face or chattering the ears. teeth to control the device silently.
On some occasions, users could perform input actions by interacting with the structure in which the portable audio device is arranged (such as a human body). Moving some part of the body, or making an internal sound in the human body, to control the AirPods.
One of the included patent drawings shows a portable audio device that resembles a future model AirPods Pro placed in the ear of a user. Another depicts an AirPods user touching his face to control the volume of the headphones.
Schematic extracted from the patent filed by Apple.
Un microphone focused on the user, it would detect an acoustic signal that propagates within the human body when an input action is performed, such as touching the face, for example.
The user can get in contact with an outer surface of his body, such as the skin of his Tsar. Other examples of input actions include a user chattering their teeth or clicking their tongue. Input actions may further include a user moving a part of the body, such as moving (shaking) the head, moving the hands, arms, legs, etc.
As always when we comment on a patent, it must be said that large companies present miles patents per year, and most of them never come true. They have a very low cost to be awarded a patent, and many times they do it "just in case" even knowing that at first they will not become reality.