Apple files healthcare tech headphones
pharmafile | February 20, 2014 | News story | Medical Communications, Sales and Marketing | Apple, Samsung, iwatch, technology, wearable
A recently-published Apple patent has shed light on a new health-monitoring device that will be built into a pair of headphones.
Apple filed the patent in 2007 for a “sports monitoring system for headphones, earbuds and/or headsets”, which was finally granted this week, indicating that Apple has been investigating the possibility of integrated health monitors for at least six years.
The unnamed item of wearable technology can track user activity during exercise, as well as sense and record other biometric data like temperature, perspiration and heartbeat. According to Apple’s patent filing, the device will be able to be used via ‘head gestures’.
It says: “One embodiment of the invention can, for example, include at least: receiving head motion data pertaining a head motion of a user of the electronic device; determining whether the head motion data matches any of a plurality of predetermined head gestures; and identifying an action associated with the matching predetermined head gesture. Additionally, the method can further operate to perform the identified action on the electronic device.”
This comes several months after Californian-based firm reportedly met with senior agents of the FDA.
The meeting involved Michael O’Reilly, previously the chief medical officer of medical sensor firm Masimo who joined Apple last year, as well as Bakul Patel, a senior policy adviser who drafted the FDA’s mobile medical app guidance and plays a role in medical gadget approval.
iWatch
As the wearable technology market has continued to heat up, Apple is also reportedly working on a so-called ‘iWatch’ that is likely to contain similar technological features.
It will not be the first smartwatch to hit the marketplace of course, even Samsung’s Galaxy Gear was beaten to that first by Sony’s LiveView offering.
Apple already holds patents for the collection of sensory information such as blood-pressure monitoring, but it is unclear whether that technology is mature enough to build into a ‘smartwatch’ or earphone-like device.
“The whole sensor field is going to explode,” said Tim Cook in an interview in 2013. “It’s a little all over the place right now. With the arc of time, it will become clearer.”
Ben Adams
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