Apple wants its AirPods, AirPods Pros to have more efficient skin sensors

Apple has filed for a patent (number 20220225006) for “electronic devices with skin sensors.” The goal is to make the AirPods and AirPods Pro more efficient at determining when they’re in your ears.

About the patent filing

In the patent filing, Apple notes that sensors may be used in earbuds to help detect when earbuds are being worn in a user’s ears. It can be challenging for such sensors to distinguish between scenarios in which earbuds are located in a user’s ears and scenarios in which earbuds are located in another confined space such as a user’s pocket. Apple wants to overcome this limitation with its AirPod and AirPods Pro.

Summary of the patent filing

Here’s Apple’s abstract of the patent filing: “A wearable electronic device such as an earbud, wristwatch, or other device may be provided with a skin sensor. The skin sensor may use optical measurements to detect the presence of skin adjacent to the electronic device. The sensor may have first and second light-emitting devices such as infrared devices that emit light at respective first and second infrared light wavelengths. Reflected light is monitored by a photodetector. 

“Control circuitry can initiate or pause audio playback or take other actions in response to determining from the reflected light measurements that skin is present. The sensor may have a thin-film interference filter or other optical structure that overlaps the first and second light-emitting devices to narrow the angular spread of light emitted from the skin sensor. This reduces tilt sensitivity and helps enhance skin sensor accuracy.”