Yeah, you read that right. We didn’t make a typo replacing AirPods with Apple Watch. As strange as it may sound, the next AirPods may come with a feature that can estimate the respiratory rate of users. Apple research suggests they can develop next-generation wireless headphones with health benefits.
New AirPods Feature: Respiratory Rate Measurements?
With the help of Cornell University, the tech giant has made noteworthy developments with the AirPods’ health assistant feature. To enhance Apple’s already beneficial Health app, the next AirPods might support a feature that allows recording breathing patterns in several scenarios. In research conducted by the team at Apple, they managed to access per minute respiratory rate from volunteers. The tech giant recorded the estimated respiratory rate of volunteered individuals during mild and excessive workout sessions.
They installed Apple AirPods with an in-bound microphone that records an individual’s breath sounds. They could further code recorded data with the help of augmented technology to display relevant measurements. Findings from these volunteer exercises might be used to code near accurate measurements in the Health App.
Once Apple finishes fully developing this technology, the company hopes that it may help in detecting underlying respiratory diseases. The conventional cardiovascular sensors are expensive and may not be accessible at all times. Hence, Apple is willing to enable respiratory measurement microphone sensors in the next AirPods as an easily accessible and cheap alternative.
With the ever-increasing demand for health and fitness wearables, it looks like the Apple AirPods will be soon joining the Apple Watch and the iPhone as devices with health benefits. What are your thoughts on AirPods possibly being able to check your respiratory rate?
