Apple is believed to be holding a new product and news launch event in September 2021. As the date approaches, many are eager to know what new features will be revealed. Recently the MyHealthyApple website discovered a great news that should arrive on the AirPods 3 and probably for the AirPods and AirPods Pro as well.
The discovery was made due to an Apple research project done in partnership with Cornell University. You can find the study through the arxiv website and in the machine learning research section of the Apple website. The article describes the ability of Apple's True Wireless Headphones (TWS) to estimate respiratory rate through the sound of the user's breathing.
While the article didn't call the AirPods by name at the beginning of its writing, they were believed to be involved. Throughout the text, expectations were confirmed by citing Apple and AirPods, mentioning that headphones were used in the study.
AirPods 3 may gain great feature for monitoring user health
The first thing that was said about the survey is:
"Respiratory rate (RR) is a clinical metric used to assess general health and physical fitness... This work investigates a model-based approach to estimating the RR of short audio segments obtained after physical exertion in adults healthy subjects. Data were collected from 21 subjects wearing near-field headsets with microphone, before, during, and after strenuous exercise. RR was manually noted by counting inhalations and perceived exhalations."
Then it says in the article:
"Remote RR estimation may offer a cost-effective method to track disease progression and cardiorespiratory fitness over time.
While we focus on discerning RR in the context of physical activity and not on clinically detecting shortness of breath specifically, the findings could, in turn, be used for medical applications."
Finally, we arrive at the part where the researchers confirm the headphones used in the experiment by saying:
"All data was recorded using headphones with a microphone at close range, specifically Apple's AirPods. These particular wearables were selected because they belong to millions of people and are used in a wide variety of contexts, from talking on the phone to listening to music during The exercises."
As we saw above, using the shortness of breath scores, quantified by the Borg Dyspnea Scale, AirPods are able to assess the severity of various breathing disorders, including peripheral arterial problems. This is impressive considering that the model used in the study was the common AirPods.
What is not yet known
The research is indeed promising, but it is not yet certain whether all AirPods will inherit this new functionality or only the next generations of Apple's TWS will. In addition, there is still uncertainty about the need to use another wearable, such as the Apple Watch, for the information to be processed.
