AirPods Pro / Getty Images
Apple may be preparing a groundbreaking personal authentication mechanism for the AirPods Pro 2, which is expected to be released later this year. According to an article published on January 27 by Patently Apple, a patent-related site, Apple's newly acquired patent has a sensor mounted on the earphone that checks the shape of the ear canal to identify the person. There is a description about technology. The reason this is important is that upcoming AirPods Pros (or AirPods) will be able to tell if the earphones are the real owner or someone else. With this system, the device will only work if worn by its owner, and may prevent theft by making it completely unattractive to thieves. However, although this function causes another problem that the earphones cannot be lent to other people, it is considered that the minority of people lend earphones to others on a daily basis in the first place. Rather, this mechanism is more likely to be used to increase the security of data. The patent document states that "in a conventional system, there is a risk that personal information will be leaked from the related device to a person who wears headphones illegally." This means that someone could take your AirPods and put them on your ears, listen to your personal messages, or launch Siri to send malicious messages to a third party. You can actually do this only if the criminal is near the iPhone or iPad to which the AirPods are connected, but it's nice to have privacy. Apple is trying to get biometric information related to the user's ear from earphones. Specifically, it is a technique that uses ultrasonic signals to map the shape of the user's ear canal. The technology also makes it possible to capture data on how the wearer walks and determine if it's the official owner. However, when recognizing an individual in this way, the wearer needs to move around rather than stay still. Of course, these techniques are only described in the patent document and may not be adopted in the actual product. However, given that the patent was first filed in July 2020, it's possible that Apple is preparing this feature for the AirPods Pro 2, which is expected to be available later this year.
David Phelan
Last updated: Forbes JAPAN
