Sharing earphones can be a bit gross if the other person has not bothered to clean their ear properly, but working on the presumption that everyone does practice basic hygiene, Apple has a patent that seems to encourage the sharing of earphones, so much so that it can detect when earphones are being shared which in turn will load up new audio profiles to match.
According to the patent discovered by AppleInsider, how it works is that built into the Y-connector in the earphones is a sensor that can detect when the earphones are shared. How will it know this? It will rely on the angle of the cables so if it detects that the cables seem to be spread out wider than usual, it will assume it is being shared.
Some of the methods Apple has suggested involves the use of capacitive sensors, while another suggests the use of a fiber optic goniometer which is capable of measuring precise angles. Other methods include piezo-electric force sensors. So what happens when the earphones detects that it is being shared?
Like we said it will load new audio profiles meaning that songs that have certain parts recorded for one side will be played as a mono-track for both users who are sharing the earphones. It’s an interesting idea but given that it is a patent, there’s really no telling if and when Apple will actually implement it, but what do you guys think? Is this something you might be interested in?
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