Apple patents earbuds with biometric sensors (FitPods?)

Apple has previously been granted a patent for “Sports monitoring system for headphones, earbuds and/or headsets” and now the company is looking to build on top of it. The base idea of the patented invention is to track users' heart rate, body temperature and other useful biometric data through earbuds or headsets.

The older patent was introduced in 2008 and it was later updated in 2014. It planned for the device to be controlled by head gestures, but it seems that Apple has realized that no one wants to shake their head left and right (or back and forth, for that matter) while running or performing other kinds of exercise. Instead, the company filed a new revision of the patent that relies heavily on touch and voice control.

The new patent shows three possible positions for the biometric sensor – in the earbud itself, in a separate attachment that goes behind the user's ear and on a cord, further away from the earbud. All three versions of the device serve the same purpose, but only two of them are inline with the AirPods' concept as a cord would completely throw the wireless idea out of the window.

Some features, detailed in the patent, will be present in the upcoming AirPods, such as the accelerometers for example, so we're willing to bet that the newly patented features might make their way to a future iteration of the headphones. We sincerely doubt they will be called FitPods, but if Apple chooses to do so, we promise to let Tim Cook and company have this one for free.