Apple AirPods third-generation. Will future AirPods appear in face mask form?
Imagine, for a moment, a new kind of AirPods, built into… a sleep mask, with health monitoring capabilities, perhaps in the earbuds themselves. That appears to be the thrust of a new patent that’s just been revealed.
It was spotted by Patently Apple, which points out that Apple’s interest in sleep has been growing in recent years, as part of its focus on health. In its unprecedented report on health, Apple talked about sleep a lot.
So, the new device is a sleep mask with integrated headphones such as AirPods. The patent doesn’t specify which model, though they’d be more likely to be in-ears than a version of AirPods Max, obviously. The concept is summed up like this: “Electronic devices such as headphones may be worn by people who desire to listen to audio content. Headphones may not, however, be sufficiently comfortable for napping or wearing for long periods of time.”
The patent for what looks like a new sleep mask with AirPods headphones built in.
This mask, which will likely be designed so there is sufficient material covering the nose to keep ambient light out, could supply music (or white noise or whatever helps you sleep) when you’re wearing it.
But, this being Apple, other features are conjured. There could be force sensors, microphones, proximity sensors, optical sensors and more.
There could even be—get this—muscle activity sensors “for measuring eye muscle contractions and other muscle contractions”. And as if that was not mind-boggling enough, there could be “eye motion sensors, blood pressure sensors, heart rate sensors, electrocardiography (ECG) sensors for measuring heart activity, photoplethysmography (PPG) sensors for sensing the rate of blood flow using light, and electroencephalograph (EEG) sensors for measuring electrical activity in the user’s brain.”
And there’s more: “In addition, the device may also include pressure sensors (e.g., force sensors that can detect pressure on the side of a user’s head when the user is resting against a pillow), humidity sensors, temperature sensors, moisture sensors, and/or other sensors.”
Okay, Apple, this is starting to get a bit scary.
What’s clear is that Apple is designing something much more complicated than your average sleep mask and capable of recording a lot of health metrics, with many of them focused on sleep health. Apple feels, rightly, that our understanding of sleep is limited and a device like this could expand our knowledge. Building in AirPods could make wearing it more appealing. And it also raises the prospect of AirPods which contain health sensors in the ears, measuring heart rate, for instance.
As always with patents, there’s no certainty when or even if this new design could see the light of day. But it’s certainly an intriguing prospect.
