Future EarPods could benefit from bone-conduction noise cancellation

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Apple's new headphones would block out unwanted noise.
Apple is working on cutting-edge noise cancellation tech.
Photo: USPTO/Apple

Apple’s EarPods could be about to get much smarter, thanks to a newly-published patent application which describes how a wireless headset could use sensors to determine which sound data to pass along to a listener.

Check out the details below.

A close-up of the EarPods as they might appear.
A close-up of the EarPods as they might appear.
Photo: USPTO/Apple

The technology would be used predominantly for microphone-enabled headsets, allowing users to make calls in which they can hear their voice and that of the other person, but without the pesky wind sounds and other assorted noise that might disrupt a call.

To do this, the EarPods would utilize a variety of sensors — including onboard microphones, batteries, accelerometers, batteries, and audio processors — to ensure that noise cancellation is carried out as smartly as possible.

The headphones would even use special inertial sensors to “detect vibration of the user’s vocal chords modulated by the user’s vocal tract based on vibrations in bones and tissue of the user’s head.”

Apple has been working on bone-conduction technology for a while, although it has yet to bring any of these wireless earphones to market — excluding those developed and released by Beats.

Having previously led the market with its iconic EarPods, maybe 2016 is the year when the technology gets taken to the next level.

Source: USPTO

Via: AI

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