The company has been rumoured to be working on using its earphones as health sensors since even before they were released – and now the company might be looking to make them into more of a “health tool”, according to a report from Bloomberg.
That could include getting hearing data and sending it back to the iPhone, for instance, he reported.
Apple’s patent filings have long suggested that it is looking at using the AirPods as an extra health sensor, presumably to complement the ones in the Watch. They have included tools that would allow it to measure a wearer’s temperature and sweat levels, for instance.
Kevin Lynch, Apple’s vice president of technology who looks after the Watch, has talked in interviews about the concept of “sensor fusion”, where its devices work together to understand things about the world and their wearer. At the moment that is done by combining information from the Watch and the iPhone, for instance, and he has suggested there is the “potential” for the AirPods to be involved too.
