Apple patents health monitoring headphones

If you thought tech giants are only now waking up to the possibility of catering to health and fitness segments using wearables, think again. Apple has just been granted a patent for headphones that monitor your vital information, a patent, which was filed way back in 2008.

Apple Insider has reported that the Cupertino-based company has been granted a patent by the US Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO) for a “Sports monitoring system for headphones, earbuds and/or headsets” that work as activity monitors. The system tracks vital metrics like change in temperature, heart rate, perspiration and more. The monitoring system is safely enclosed in a set of headphones that a user could wear during workouts and have it track his vital stats for him.

Thanks to the headphones’ proximity to the wearer and its placement on the head, the readings could return accurate movement data. The report suggests that an accelerometer could be fit into the earphone chassis for better movement tracking as well. There could well be multiple accelerometers within this system, each corresponding to a different axis.

What’s more is that Apple aims to make this monitoring system completely handsfree for operation. For example, you could be out running while using Apple’s headphones. Even while it tracks your movement accurately, you need not stop and slow down to change the track, a mere tilt of your head could change the track you’re listening to. While this would mean you don’t need to wear a separate smartwatch or Nike Fuel or Fitbit style tracker, these headphones are probably not something you could wear throughout the day, thereby limiting its potential.

Apple seems to have set its sights on the wearables and health segment and news about its work in the area seems to be trickling out nearly everyday. The company recently made some key hires from the space of medicine and wearables, hinting at devices being developed. There are also long-standing rumours of the **iWatch**, a smartwatch that will run on iOS, but we’re yet to see something concrete that shows the watch is indeed in works.