A new Apple patent has been published by the U.S. Patent and Trademark Office which describes a new type of headphone that adjusts the output produced based on seal quality along with microphones to determine the volume levels outside the headphones. This is all in some earbuds that would look very similar to existing models.
Apple wants the seal to be as tight as possible, so it can keep the volume levels low while still being easy to hear by the user. It’ll be able to detect the tightness via the microphones, which determine the ambient noise and the required amount of noise cancellation will give an insight into how good the seal is. It’ll then be able to tell the user via the device that the seal isn’t perfect and he or she should try to fix it.
There are many problems with current headphones – a lot are too imperfect with their seals and so have to be played louder than necessary to get around the problem, which can damage hearing.
The patent was filed for back in February 2013 but there hasn’t been any headphone changes since then so it’s entirely possible this product is still in the works.
