In a couple of years at most, Apple’s AirPods could monitor hearing health. The journalist is convinced of this Mark Gurman which in its usual weekly newsletter on Bloomberg stated that the headphones of the Cupertino company they will become a kind of medical device able to get “some kind of hearing data”.
Apple’s AirPods already offer some hearing-focused features. Between these, “Live listening” which allows you to amplify the sounds captured by the microphones for better listening even in a noisy environment, and “Amplifying conversations” which allows us to focus more on the person in front of us.
However, these features were not developed to replace hearing aids, nor have they ever sought approval from the relevant health authorities. Apple, however, as also demonstrated by several patents obtained in recent years, would be thinking about the future of AirPods also in terms of medical devices.
It is not the first time that rumors have circulated about the possible integration of particular sensors in the AirPods. In recent years, even in a WSJ report, the possibility was speculated that Apple could integrate biometric health monitoring features into future AirPods models.
In the patents, on the other hand, the possible use of biometric sensors, skin contact sensors and movement sensors was highlighted for monitoring some physiological metrics including body temperature, heart rate, sweating levels.