In July 2019 Apple was granted a patent for smart fabrics with touch sensor controls for over ear headphones. Apple won two additional patents relating to their future over ear headphones in 2020 focused on providing touch gesture input on the exterior of the earcups (01 and 02) to control volume and more. One of the 2020 patent figures is presented below.

When Apple launched their first AirPods Max in December 2020, they introduced them utilizing their Digital Crown as the means of controlling sound and more.

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Last Thursday the US Patent & Trademark Office published a patent application that continued to advance touch controls for AirPods Max as illustrated in their patent FIG. 6i below. The patent figure illustrates an exemplary technique for processing gestures on a touch-sensitive surface of possible future AirPods Max.

Apple's summary notes that an electronic device includes: at least a first touch-sensitive surface; one or more processors; and memory storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for: detecting, at the at least a first touch-sensitive surface, a first gesture, including detecting an orientation of the first gesture with respect to the touch-sensitive surface; and in response to detecting the first gesture: in accordance with a determination that the electronic device is in a first device orientation and that the orientation of the first gesture corresponds to a first predetermined orientation, performing a first action; and in accordance with a determination that the electronic device is in a second device orientation, different than the first device orientation and that the orientation of the first gesture corresponds to the first predetermined orientation, performing a second action, different than the first action.

Further, an electronic device includes: one or more motion sensors; an audio output mechanism; one or more processors; and memory storing one or more programs configured to be executed by the one or more processors, the one or more programs including instructions for: detecting first motion of the electronic device; and in response to detecting the first motion of the electronic device: in accordance with a determination that the first motion satisfies first operating state criteria, operating the electronic device in a first audio output operating state; and in accordance with a determination that the first motion satisfies second operating state criteria, different than the first operating state criteria, operating the electronic device in a second audio output operating state, different than the first audio output operating state.

To dive deeper into the details of Apple's patent application number 20220038820, click here. Apple filed for this patent in October 2021, well after AirPods Max came to market. The patent was published by USPTO last Thursday, February 3, 2022.

Could touch controls for AirPods Max still one day be used? Only time will tell.