The privacy and security of Apple devices is one of the fundamental pillars of their design and production. Throughout history, security systems such as the unlock code, Touch ID or Face ID have appeared. Each with its advantages and disadvantages but with a single objective: to protect and authenticate, that is to say guarantee that the user is who he claims to be to access all his information. a new patent collect how user authentication could be brought to AirPods thanks to a hypothetical ultrasonic system that would delimit the ear of each user.
User authentication could come from AirPods
Security systems have one common element which is exploit the unique characteristics of each user, those characteristics that make us different from each other. Above all, biometric security systems such as Face ID or Touch ID are based on this, on the development of electrical diagrams through hardware and software to create “digital signatures” which, when matched with the user, access At the phone.
However, many devices do not have an authentication system. Because they don’t have enough material or because planting it would greatly increase the cost of the device. A new Apple patent discovered by Patently Apple and published in the United States Patent and Trademark Office has opened a possibility to integrate authentication into AirPods, Apple headphones.
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The purpose of this patent is not specifically to focus on biometric authentication but with the aim of bringing authentication to AirPods. Since for Apple it is a security breach that a user can put on certain AirPods that are not theirs. Being able to access notifications from a device that is not yours. To do this, Apple offers external authentication systems to access the headphones such as Touch ID or Face ID, through the device to which they have been connected, or an ultrasound-based biometric system.
For example, various features of the user’s ear provide an echo of the ultrasound signal that is unique to the user. Variations in the surface of the user’s ear canal can cause the ultrasound signal to reflect off the surface and generate an echo with a signature associated with the user. For example, a user with a larger ear canal may result in an echo having a longer reverberation time than a user with a smaller ear canal.
The emission of ultrasound by the AirPods would produce an echo that would be different for each user. This is due to the anatomical differences in the ear canal between different people. The generated card would produce a “digital signature” which would increase security when authenticating the user.
