Apple might add user authentication to AirPods, according to new patent

Apple has recently filed a patent with the United States Patent and Trademark Office titled “User Identification Using Headphones”, which was spotted by Patently Apple. The patent explains how AirPods can be authenticated by using other “nearby devices, ultrasonic signals, voice recognition, and even a wearer’s gait”.

The main concept of the patent is to address the issue that AirPods cannot determine if the person wearing it is the authorised user of the device. As Apple explains, this can be an issue since any person can use the AirPods while they are connected to a device that belongs to someone else. This puts the connected device at the risk of releasing personal information, like notification announcements from Siri.

The system outlined in the patent can bypass the need for Touch ID, Face ID, and any other biometric authentication on any other device and instead uses a “similarity score” to verify a user’s identity. This similarity score is based on a bunch of different variables like the proximity of other nearby devices belonging to the connected device’s owner.

Apple also adds that biometrics could “still be used to increase the accuracy of the similarity score”, and to do that with the AirPods itself, the company “proposes playing and receiving ultrasonic sounds inside the headphones”.

As the patent explains, “various characteristics of the user's ear provide an echo of the ultrasonic signal which is unique to the user. Variations in the surface of the user's ear canal may cause the ultrasonic signal to reflect off the surface and generate an echo having a signature that is associated with the user. For example, a user having a larger ear canal may result in an echo having a longer reverberation time than a user having a smaller ear canal.

Apple pointed out that the AirPods can also use information gathered by its gyroscopes, accelerometers, and microphones about the user’s gait and use that to determine if they are indeed the owners of the connected device.

All of these data points, collectively, will help provide a similarity score to authenticate a user “if it reaches the required threshold”.

The company has been known to add new features to its existing AirPods via firmware updates, for example Find My network support, Spatial Audio support, Conversation Boost, etc. So it is possible that if and when Apple does roll out the authentication feature, that too might come in as on OTA update. Now, this feature is only at the patent stage right now so there is really no knowing if and when Apple might roll this out.

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