Apple patents health-and-fitness monitoring headphones

February 19, 2014

(Credit: Apple/USPTO)

Apple has been awarded U.S. Patent No. 8,655,004 for a “sports monitoring system for headphones, earbuds and/or headsets,” Apple Insider reports.

The devices include accelerometers for detecting motion, and sensors for temperature, perspiration, heart-rate, activity, fitness, and other data.

Apple has “allegedly hired a number of experts in the field non-intrusive medical sensors,” Apple Insider reported last year.

The publication also noted previously that KGI Securities analyst Ming-Chi Kuo believes Apple’s much-rumored iWatch will hit store shelves late in 2014, focusing on “biometrics and deep integration with existing iOS devices.”