As the best wireless earbuds on the market right now, Apple AirPods Pro will have to deliver compelling new features if it intends to keep its title with a second-generation model. One of those AirPods Pro 2 features could be a catalog of great air and range movements.
In a patent (spotted by PatentlyApple), Apple installs an AirPods Pro navigation system that builds on existing power sensor controls. It explains how air movements, such as capacitive sensors on the device, can be used to enhance the experience of using the premium sound-canceling headphones.
The patent describes how both touch and air movements could work together on a pair of earbuds. A crane on a steel can, for example, prepare the sensors of the AirPods Pro for an air gesture. These actions could be linked together to activate different actions as well.
“The earbud can be configured to detect gestures, physical manipulations, etc. along or on the earbud,” the patent reads. “In response to the detected inputs, the earbud can be configured to change various outputs, such as an audio output or a haptic output of the device.”
Apple also makes a point of how it could implement this system in other devices. Similar capacitive sensors could exist in everything from the iPad and iMac to the Apple Watch and rumored Apple Glasses.
It’s important to recognize that this is only a patent, and that many of Apple’s protected ideas and designs never see the light of day. That said, with force controls already in place, air movements can be an inevitable evolution.
Whether they will arrive for AirPods Pro 2 or Apple AirPods 3 is the indispensable question here. While we know another pair of AirPods is in the pipeline by grateful Apple analyst Ming-Chi Kuo, who says AirPods 3 will arrive in the first half of 2021.
