Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

earpodsecret.tumblr.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

11–20 of 64 posts

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#11

Post by aaronem »

dclowd9901 wrote: post #8

The part toward the end where he talks about Apple hiring someone who deals with biometrics makes you wonder why more companies don't "float" ideas to see how much traction they might get with the market. An easy and cheap way to see if there's even a market for an idea. Yeah, you tip your hand a bit toward the competition, but if you're truly good at what you do, the competition doesn't matter anyway.

> makes you wonder why more companies don't "float" ideas to see how much traction they might get

How do you know they don't? Whether to test the waters of consumer reception, or to decoy me-too competitors into doing something foolish, it's too good an idea to pass up, and I think it's reasonable to suspect Apple of having done both in the past -- see, for example, the persistent rumors around the "Apple Phone" which cropped up a couple of years before the iPhone did, and the similar rumors around the "iWatch", which, being the bad idea it is, seems less likely to materialize with every passing day, but which has certainly convinced Samsung et al that it's worth investing in that bad idea just in case Apple knows something they don't.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#12

Post by jwr »

jhh wrote: post #5

There's really no need to apologize for this in my opinion. If people decide to trust a complete non-source that's their problem. It's actually a fascinating demonstration of the dynamics of these rumors.

I also feel there is no need to apologize. It was a silly rumor and I find it amazing that people will spend so much time on such silliness (instead of, you know, building things, or doing anything that adds value).

I don't feel sorry for those who picked up the rumor and ran with it. If you make it your mission/business to pick up hearsay and pump your pageviews, you deserve what you get.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#13

Post by roderickm »

Biometric EarPods are real -- but the product is called The Dash, made in Munich by Bragi. The Dash monitors movements like pace, steps, cadence and distance as well as heart rate, oxygen saturation and energy spent. Two tiny LEDs emit low intensity red and infrared light into the capillaries in the ear. The optical reflection of the emitted light reveal the relative amount of red and white blood cells more than 50 times every second. A precise heart rate and oxygen saturation level is calculated with the data.

The Dash Kickstarter is already fully funded; I'm a backer waiting with eager anticipation. https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hellobragi/the-dash-wir...

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#14

Post by glenra »

The thing is that made-up or not, this is a really good idea. An idea whose time has come. Something like it is probably inevitable.

Everywhere you go, you see people walking around with Apple headphones in their ears much of the time. The hardware connected to those headphones doesn't merely send music out to the ears from the phone, it also accepts signals in the other direction to enable microphone input and a few buttons for pause/play and volume up/down. So sending other sorts of signals back doesn't require any new hardware on the phone.

There currently exist devices that take body temperature by sticking a sensor in the ear. Apple has a history of sticking all sorts of tiny sensors in their phones to enable new software features. So why not an earbud thermometer?

If they stuck a temperature sensor in the headphone it would enable these features:

(1) an plain old on-demand thermometer app. Think you might have a fever? There's an app for that! Wonder what temperature it is outside? Same app! A temperature sensor inside the phone mostly tells you how hot the battery and processor are but a temperature sensor in the earbud tells you your own temperature (when you're wearing them) or the ambient local temperature (when you take them out). Both are useful information.

(2) A background thermometer-based health check. Listen to music on headphones and the iPhone can warn you if you have a fever or are overheating during a workout.

Even without more speculative features - blood sugar or blood pressure testing - this is doable. Somebody will make this product.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#16

Post by SoftwareMaven »

glenra wrote: post #14

The thing is that made-up or not, this is a really good idea . An idea whose time has come. Something like it is probably inevitable. Everywhere you go, you see people walking around with Apple headphones in their ears much of the time. The hardware connected to those headphones doesn't merely send music out to the ears from the phone, it also accepts signals in the other direction to enable microphone input and a fe…

That this is a good idea that seems completely reasonable with today's tech is why this thing took off like it did, especially combined with the current buzz on personalized healthcare. Honestly, the author probably could not have chosen a device more likely to sweep the rumor mill by storm.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#17

Post by mortenjorck »

jhh wrote: post #5

There's really no need to apologize for this in my opinion. If people decide to trust a complete non-source that's their problem. It's actually a fascinating demonstration of the dynamics of these rumors.

It’s a long shot that the poster would have actually endangered anyone’s position at Apple, but I suppose it’s already a somewhat long shot that he managed to nail both the patent and an area of expertise of a recent hire, all without any prior context. Given that, I think this was the right thing to do.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#18

Post by pistle »

See, these great ideas will now come to market, save numerous lives and improve quality of life for people, and you're going to get nothing.

I have an idea. We come up with a shitter station for you since this is where your great ideas come from. We'll serve you up with food and fun. You just make the business you do.

Re: I “Leaked” the story about the Biometric EarPods. But I’m not proud of it

#20

Post by gmisra »

roderickm wrote: post #13

Biometric EarPods are real -- but the product is called The Dash, made in Munich by Bragi. The Dash monitors movements like pace, steps, cadence and distance as well as heart rate, oxygen saturation and energy spent. Two tiny LEDs emit low intensity red and infrared light into the capillaries in the ear. The optical reflection of the emitted light reveal the relative amount of red and white blood cells more than 50 t…

I wouldn't go as far as to say they are "real" yet - they are still working on the prototype: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/hellobragi/the-dash-wir...
Post reply on HN