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Apple patents suggest future AirPods could monitor biosignals and brain activity

applemagazine.com

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Re: Apple patents suggest future AirPods could monitor biosignals and brain activity

#11

Post by tetris11 »

cmiller1 wrote: post #4

It's tangential to this but the integration of biofeedback with headphones reminded me something I've dreamed of having off and on for years. I would really love a music player that uses some kind of biological sensing data to help inform what it plays. When I'm exercising I'd love for my phone to be able to figure out my intensity through some metrics (heart rate, respiration, skin temperature, accelerometers) and s…

Same, as well as serving me better ads that I will be more susceptible to in a more euphoric state of mind.

Re: Apple patents suggest future AirPods could monitor biosignals and brain activity

#13

Post by crazygringo »

Is this even remotely feasible though, technologically?

I briefly tried using the Muse headband, a cheap (~$200) brain EEG device that connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and it was pretty much a disaster. It had five metal contacts across the forehead, but could never keep all five correctly working, so it was constantly showing errors in the app about insufficient data.

Given that we still haven't figured out how to even get regular consumer metal contact EEG sensors working reliably, I'm perplexed at how earbuds could ever pick up brain waves in an accurate fashion.

Re: Apple patents suggest future AirPods could monitor biosignals and brain activity

#14

Post by swatcoder »

The comments coming in so far are off track.

This is about enabling pretty low key but useful biofeedback things like meditation training and maybe ear temperature for health tracking. The signals that would be available to AirPods are very limited and already pretty well understood. Apple’s achievement (as often) would really be in their industrial technique for producing accurate, efficient, affordable sensors that fit within their exacting product design.

It’s not going to read your mind your zap current across your brain. :)

Re: Apple patents suggest future AirPods could monitor biosignals and brain activity

#15

Post by blocked-by-cf »

robertlagrant wrote: post #6
rsync wrote: post #3

[flagged]

Thankfully we're nowhere near crossing it.

The davos types don't think "brain transparency" is so farfetched.

"You may be surprised to learn this is a future that has already arrived."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hfqD5aW0X5U

Re: Apple patents suggest future AirPods could monitor biosignals and brain activity

#16

Post by imnotdang »

tetris11 wrote: post #11
cmiller1 wrote: post #4

It's tangential to this but the integration of biofeedback with headphones reminded me something I've dreamed of having off and on for years. I would really love a music player that uses some kind of biological sensing data to help inform what it plays. When I'm exercising I'd love for my phone to be able to figure out my intensity through some metrics (heart rate, respiration, skin temperature, accelerometers) and s…

Same, as well as serving me better ads that I will be more susceptible to in a more euphoric state of mind.

[flagged]

Re: Apple patents suggest future AirPods could monitor biosignals and brain activity

#17

Post by [deleted] »

crazygringo wrote: post #13

Is this even remotely feasible though, technologically? I briefly tried using the Muse headband, a cheap (~$200) brain EEG device that connects to your phone via Bluetooth, and it was pretty much a disaster. It had five metal contacts across the forehead, but could never keep all five correctly working, so it was constantly showing errors in the app about insufficient data. Given that we still haven't figured out how…

[deleted]

Re: Apple patents suggest future AirPods could monitor biosignals and brain activity

#18

Post by Barrin92 »

swatcoder wrote: post #14

The comments coming in so far are off track. This is about enabling pretty low key but useful biofeedback things like meditation training and maybe ear temperature for health tracking. The signals that would be available to AirPods are very limited and already pretty well understood. Apple’s achievement (as often) would really be in their industrial technique for producing accurate, efficient, affordable sensors that…

doesn't really need to do any of that to have negative effects. Not only are there obvious privacy issues, the 24/7 health monitoring craze of people who are healthy and don't require such interventions is just a waste of money and potentially worry. Yet another avenue to sell people 'health services' that in reality have no measurable impact.

My wife's a physician. She now routinely has to deal with healthy young people who come into her clinic with anxiety because of spurious smart watch alerts concerning their sleep or heart rhythm, despite the fact that they undergo regular checkups to begin with and such monitoring isn't indicated.

Re: Apple patents suggest future AirPods could monitor biosignals and brain activity

#20

Post by Fauntleroy »

tetris11 wrote: post #11
cmiller1 wrote: post #4

It's tangential to this but the integration of biofeedback with headphones reminded me something I've dreamed of having off and on for years. I would really love a music player that uses some kind of biological sensing data to help inform what it plays. When I'm exercising I'd love for my phone to be able to figure out my intensity through some metrics (heart rate, respiration, skin temperature, accelerometers) and s…

Same, as well as serving me better ads that I will be more susceptible to in a more euphoric state of mind.

It's always a good exercise to keep in mind how fantastic new tech will be forced into shitty capitalism-driven forms when it actually hits.
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