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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

#21

Post by swatcoder »

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…

For slowly trending electrical signals like you’d use for meditation training or sleep detection, and for other biosignals like in-ear temperature, yeah, it’s mostly just a matter of making things fit and have power without compromising the core features of the product.

Muse is way more ambitious in what they’re trying to do and also have way less control over manufacturing detail and efficiency. It’s a totally different thing.

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

#22

Post by bigfudge »

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.

In reply to the iamnotdang comment below, which I don't seem to be able to comment on directly: There is sarcasm here, which is perhaps what you're referring to. But I'd argue here it's a form of satire which is also (slightly) informative. The reader doesn't have to work very hard to realise the argument being made that this is another greasing of the slippery slope we're on to Black Mirror style immersive surveillance capitalism.

Perhaps we should make that point explicitly: It's a concern that US based mega corps will have access to data about mental states at population scale, and that would provide significant power to them for both good and potential ill.

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

#24

Post by 2023throwawayy »

Barrin92 wrote: post #18
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 pe…

I have been using an Apple Watch to track my health as an otherwise healthy person for a while now.

No one has tried to sell me any health services.

I feel far more confident in the security of their Health ecosystem than I do any individual app developer.

This is FUD.

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

#25

Post by specialist »

Should any of Apple's boffins be reading...

I desperately want active breath monitoring. Like measuring breaths per minute. Like nudging me when I'm holding my breath.

These features would greatly help me with managing chronic pain.

Also, the "pulmonauts" are doing a bunch of cool new stuff. Active breath monitoring would be a boon.

"Breath: The New Science of a Lost Art Hardcover" by James Nestor [2020-05-26] https://www.amazon.com/Breath-New-Science-Lost-Art/dp/073521...

--

Out of curiosity, I tried using some decibel meter type apps to detect my breathing (breath sounds). Just to see if it's even possible.

I didn't get very far. I haven't had the gumption to investigate further. Use an actual mic and tape recorder, because maybe the iPhone is doing active noise cancelation or something. If there's actually some signal (sound), maybe there's also a way to get the raw data from the iPhone mic.

Asked another way, I'm not smart enough to figure out if an iPhone's stock mics are sensitive enough to pick up 10 decibels (breath sounds). My google-fu is weak.

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

#26

Post by specialist »

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…

I'm so ready for any and all progress on health monitoring. Use cases like early detection and monitoring of strokes, seizures, Parkinson's, dementia, and so forth.

Per Rosalind Picard, we're just at the very beginning of affective computing.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Affective_computing

"Yes please" to each and every single thing Picard and others are working on.

https://www.affectiva.com/what/products/

https://imotions.com/products/imotions-lab/modules/fea-facia...

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

#28

Post by [deleted] »

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…

[deleted]

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

#29

Post by specialist »

2023throwawayy wrote: post #24
Barrin92 wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

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 pe…

I have been using an Apple Watch to track my health as an otherwise healthy person for a while now. No one has tried to sell me any health services. I feel far more confident in the security of their Health ecosystem than I do any individual app developer. This is FUD.

I'm a very unhealthy person. My Apple Watch has been a huge boon for tracking my health.

For some stuff, I'd otherwise be completely oblivious. Self-reporting is notoriously unreliable. Which I've now experienced first hand.

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