The collaboration of AI and sensors will ensure the invisible user interface.
One might think that not much can be gained from wireless earbuds other than transmitting sound, but it has been rumored for years that Apple’s AirPods are enriched with health functions such as measuring temperature or evaluating the condition of our hearing.
And the more distant future may hold more excitement, as evidenced by a patent recently accepted from the people of Cupertino.
In the United States Patent and Trademark Office The solution is submitted under serial number 11,704,592 B2 Its gist is that the wearable will be able to detect the user’s gestures with the help of various sensors and some AI magic, which can then be translated into instructions.
While the documentation doesn’t specifically mention the AirPods, it frequently uses earphones and headphones as an example, so it’s not a bold guess that Apple primarily had this family of products in mind when creating the stealth concept. Based on the description, the Cupertino folks, for example, are combining data from sound, light or acceleration sensors with artificial intelligence, which will detect gestures by learning from the user’s habits.
The advantage of the solution is that there is no need for expensive and space-consuming touch-sensitive surfaces, and the foundation of multiple sensors makes recognition more accurate. For example, if you base a command to stop music on a light sensor only, it’s easy for a situation that’s casting a shadow to send the wrong command to the device. On the other hand, if the microphone, accelerometer, light sensor, and artificial intelligence are included in the formula as well, the true intent of the user can be deduced with a great degree of certainty.
Of course, the patent-related fact remains true that Apple protects a lot more technology than it ultimately uses, but it can’t be ruled out that one day we’ll see an idea called “machine learning-based gesture recognition” in action.
