Apple patents suggest future AirPods could monitor biosignals and brain activity
applemagazine.com
applemagazine.com
The gadget of my dreams would then disrupt those relatively unmonetizable states of mind, which I tend to drift into from time-to-time, and with a much more profitable and optimized state of alertness using a variety of well-developed innovations and software tricks such as haptics, electromagnetism, or sound, at a liminal or subliminal threshold.
It matters not as long as the job gets done in the end. As long as the conversion has taken place, and that the signal-to-conversion ratio is well within parameters.
I'll then rest easy, knowing that I'm helping others. I'm saving jobs. Saving lives. Saving shareholders. Priceless.
Innovations such as this bring me one step closer to my own self-actualization. God bless innovation.
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.
https://www.theonion.com/new-google-phone-service-whispers-t...
Just getting as advanced as “this human normally puts chilled music on at this time of day, which is also the time many people go to sleep in this time zone” would be a start.
That's where bone conduction headphones such as Aeropex by Aftershokz come in: https://youtu.be/IACve6PlC8o?t=271 (That's a video link because it's to a guy using them on a bike, and saying they don't block situational awareness).
This would be useful though, as I listen to high BPM when running, then run to the beat, but if my heartrate starts approaching some max then it would be nice for it to pick songs that have a progressively lower bpm to get me to adjust my stride while running.
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.
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.
We are making an EEG headband for increasing the efficiency of deep sleep, and though we are still improving on our data reliability, using the right materials and structure, it can be much more reliable than Muse.
Earphone EEG already exists, they don't use "metal contacts", and neither do we. There are conductive silicones, and conductive fabrics which better conform to the skin and provide good signal quality and comfort.
However, they still don't work well with movement. This is the challenge I see with in-ear.
A neuroscientist I know just bought a pair of Emotiv MN8 (https://www.emotiv.com/mn8-eeg-headset-with-contour-app/) earbuds, and said they wanted to try it while running. I have serious doubts that will work, as all EGG is susceptible to movement noise.
But in ear silicone conductive tips while meditating, I think that will be fine. LGs I think are out this year, Emotiv already are, there are a few others as well.
The other alternative is fNIRS, which is more similar to an ECG monitor in your smartwatch. It is measuring bloodflow through the brain, but there is a delay between bloodflow and brain activity, so it was a non-starter for us as we are responding to your brain activity in real-time, but I think for meditation or similar uses it would be fine, and maybe even preferred.
It's probably a couple decades away, but at least it's feasible.
That seems far outside the realm of what should be patentable.
I have used a single electrode Muse headband so I guess yours is more advanced, but I can believe that AirPods would have better and more reliable skin connection than the device I have used.
It does still take too long to charge, and the first one I got leaked dye on my pillow.
I also bought another product https://getbia.com as the features sounded interesting, but as they haven't shipped yet, can't say if it works.
I would have preferred the wifi disabling being optional, or a bluetooth link to my phone, or even an ethernet port!
For example, whenever you start to get stressed out, the thing will tell you to take a break. Little things like that. Instead of relying on your own level of mindfulness to get you there
I think that little things like this could definitely improve quality of life, something I’d pay for personally, although with the constraint that the data doesn’t go anywhere with zero exceptions
But instead it's Apple.
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...
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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.
Not sure about the state of Apple Watchen but my Garmin watch (a several year old Fenix) monitors breaths per minute, history, and has breath exercises. Seems this would be easily within reach of Apple so I’m not sure why they’re not doing it if Garmin is. Unless what Garmin considers accurate or reliable isn’t up to Apple standards. Shrug.
TIL: Garmin also uses HRV to infer respiration, aka respiratory sinus arrhythmia. But it's good enough for all day. And skimming their forums suggests their users are content that it works as advertised.
https://www.garmin.com/en-GB/garmin-technology/health-scienc...
https://www.garmin.com/en-SG/blog/critical-relationship-betw...
I desperately want active breath monitoring
I don't think it's a great idea to call people boffins and then ask them to do something for you.
From Wikipedia[^0]:
> Boffin is a British slang term for a scientist, engineer, or other person engaged in technical or scientific research and development. A "boffin" was viewed by some in the regular services as odd, quirky or peculiar, though quite bright and essential to helping in the war effort through having and developing the key ideas leading to transformative military capabilities.
Begin by focusing on your breath whenever you leave a room.
They could really just stick in a "time travel" module into the AirPod patent and then just wait for somebody else to invent it.
But if there is another sector that could sit adjacent to iPhone, or potentially exceeds it in terms revenue. It would be personal health.
Never ever have signal issues, how common is this with the AirPods?
we're one thought away for being thrown into jail for shower thoughts that go slightly the wrong side of "publicly acceptable".
i think ALL of this technology is incredibly cool and exciting, BUT - my excitement is hampered by the internets current panopticapitalism/surveillance economy. Asking for "government to step in" as i often hear is pretty funny, seeing as what Snowden has shown us...it is often they who are lobbying for increased and tighter surveillance....
/sad.
Not really. That’s like being laughed at for being naked at a nudist camp. If nobody has privacy, all of those little thoughts become public and the perception of what’s acceptable shifts
In a weird way privacy is a double edged sword and necessitates its own existence
I think, in general, we’d be a lot more sane as a society if we held back less from one another
No, it just means that anyone can be destroyed if they offend the keeper of the data.
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. :)
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.
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.
For some stuff, I'd otherwise be completely oblivious. Self-reporting is notoriously unreliable. Which I've now experienced first hand.
Health isn’t a binary thing, but as a spectrum, I can say that I’m healthier now than I was 10 years ago because I’ve been able to make data-informed insights into my own idiosyncratic body.
Medical research tells you about population patterns and doctors treat illness. Neither of those play the same role as having lots of personal health data to form and test hypotheses over.
Privacy may be a concern, but for now, I’m personally pretty comfortable with Apple’s commitment to privacy as a differentiating factor against their competitors. That won’t last forever, but it’s good for now.
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...
Call me superstitious but two electronic earpieces communicating through your brain with one another, don’t like the idea.
Oh and surprise we can actually scan your brain.
But your head is RF transparent, which means all RF anywhere near you is passing through it. That's fine, just don't stick it in a microwave.