A new patent application describes how Crash Detection accuracy could be improved by using multiple Apple devices.
In particular, it suggests that using motion sensors in AirPods could be used to detect incidents that could result in head injury without necessarily registering an impact on an Apple Watch or iPhone …
Crash Detection has saved lives
Crash Detection had only been available for a month when it was first credited with enabling a helicopter rescue, after a car went off the side of a mountain in a remote canyon. The feature detected the crash, and activated Emergency SOS via Satellite to call for help and send the location.
In particular, the feature can call for help even when casualties are unconscious, as was the case in a pickup truck crash in the early hours of the morning.
The feature was most recently credited with saving the life of a man whose car plunged 400 feet into a canyon, with rescuers saying that he would likely have bled out without the automatic call, complete with location information.
But has been criticized for false alarms
However, Crash Detection has also been criticized for false alarms, wasting the time and resources of emergency services.
Back in October of last year, it was found that false alerts were being generated by iPhone 14 and Apple Watch owners riding roller coasters.
The following month, the same thing happened with skiers, with one 911 center stating that these unnecessary calls can prove extremely time-consuming for rescuers, who have to assume they are real until proven otherwise.
Equally, there may be crashes that the feature will not detect, when it should.
Crash Detection accuracy is tricky
Apple execs responded by explaining that crash detection is tricky. The feature uses multiple sensors, but there are no guarantees.
The gyroscope and accelerometer are just two of the sensor pieces here. The list also includes the GPS to determine that the user is traveling at high speeds, the microphone to monitor for the sounds of a crash and the barometer, which detects the change in pressure that occurs when airbags are deployed. […]
“There’s no silver bullet, in terms of activating crash detection,” says Huang. “It’s hard to say how many of these things have to trigger, because it’s not a straight equation. Depending how fast the traveling speed was earlier, determines what signals we have to see later on, as well. Your speed change, combined with the impact force, combined with the pressure change, combined with the sound level, it’s all a pretty dynamic algorithm.”
Patent describes how multiple devices could help
A new patent application spotted by Patently Apple describes how Crash Detection accuracy could be improved by using multiple Apple devices – including AirPods.
Apple says that by comparing the forces detected by AirPods with ones detected by an iPhone and Apple Watch, a more accurate picture can be generated.
In one example of the portable impact detection device, the head-mountable device can include an earbud. The earbud can include a second motion sensor, an antenna, and a second processor electrically connected to the second motion sensor and the antenna.
The second processor can identify a threshold motion detected by the second motion sensor and cause the antenna to send a signal that includes the second motion data. In one example, the signal is sent to the portable concussion detection device.
In one example, the portable concussion detection device can include a wearable electronic device. In one example, the wearable electronic device comprises a smartwatch. In one example, the wearable electronic device can include a smartphone.
In particular, this would be likely to detect head or neck injuries that might be missed by an iPhone or Apple Watch alone.
As always with Apple patents, there’s no telling which of them will ever be released, but this one does seem more likely than not.
Photo: Camilo Jimenez/Unsplash
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