A new patent filed by Apple shows that its high-end headphones are on their way. According to the patent, the touch input surface of Apple’s over-ear headphones will detect clicks and slides to perform various operations, such as changing the volume or playing and pausing music. For example, it can be used to detect a gesture (e.g., swipe) on a user’s headset touch interface, and the gesture can be made in a specific direction.
In addition, Apple over-ear headphones can be worn in a variety of configurations, such as standing upright with the headband around the top of the head, down, the headband around the back of the neck, or anywhere in between. Therefore, the system and method described herein can be used to determine the rotation of the headset and perform corresponding preset actions. The headset will also be worn in different positions, such as the strap behind the user’s head. In this case, the headset adjusts the direction of the touch surface in the earmuffs and interprets the input gesture accordingly.
One of the biggest complaints from AirPods users is that they don’t support volume control. The user must use an iOS device or Mac to adjust the volume, or ask Siri to change the volume, which is not convenient. This may be due to the small size of AirPods and does not support any such gestures, but Apple also does not allow users to configure tap gestures on AirPods, or configure forced touch gestures on AirPods Pro to change the volume.
It is worth mentioning that two interesting icons have appeared in the previous iOS 14 code, namely, light mode and dark mode headsets. From the picture, this should be Apple’s headphones.