Apple has been granted a patent for “Wearable Skin Vibration Or Silent Gesture Detection.” It hints at future Apple Watches and AirPods that can respond to a user’s head motion or lip movements
About the patent
The patent involves wearable electronic devices such as Apple Watches and AirPods that are equipped with self-mixing interferometry sensors for detecting user inputs and/or user input commands.
The self-mixing interferometry sensors may detect the user inputs by detecting skin deformations or skin vibrations at one or more locations on a user’s head. The skin deformations or skin vibrations may be caused by a user’s voiced or silent speech or head motion.
In the patent Apple notes that wearable electronic devices, such as smart watches or headphones, are often configured to receive user inputs or commands by detecting a user’s voice, or a user’s press at a button or on an input screen. The voiced input command may be received by a microphone of the wearable electronic device.
However, Apple says that each of these input processes has potential limitations. Voice recognition software must distinguish the user’s or wearer’s voice from background noise or voices of others, and press or force inputs require a user’s hands to be free. Also, a user may be unable to input a command to the wearable electronic device without being heard.
Apple’s idea is for a wearable device that includes: a frame configured to attach the wearable device to a user; a self-mixing interferometry sensor mounted to the frame and configured to emit a beam of light; and a command interpreter configured to receive a self-mixing interferometry signal from the self-mixing interferometry sensor. The frame may be configured to direct the beam of light toward the head of the user. The self-mixing interferometry signal may include skin deformation information — in other words, head and lip movements.
Summary of the patent
Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent: “Disclosed herein are wearable devices, their configurations, and methods of operation that use self-mixing interferometry signals of a self-mixing interferometry sensor to recognize user inputs. The user inputs may include voiced commands or silent gesture commands. The devices may be wearable on the user’s head, with the self-mixing interferometry sensor configured to direct a beam of light toward a location on the user’s head. Skin deformations or vibrations at the location may be caused by the user’s speech or the user’s silent gestures and recognized using the self-mixing interferometry signal. The self-mixing interferometry signals may be used for bioauthentication and/or audio conditioning of received sound or voice inputs to a microphone.”
