This was a big patent week for future Apple device upgrades related to health. On Thursday, we covered patents relating to a Vision Pro Facial Interface within the light seal with integrated health sensors and health sensors that could be integrated into the Vision Pro head band designed  to monitor brain activity. Today we're covering two additional patents that relate to adding a heart monitoring system in a future version of AirPods Max.

In Apple's patent background they note that The human heart is the primary organ of the circulatory system that pumps blood through the human body. The human heart includes four main chambers that work in a synchronized manner to circulate blood through the body. Heart movement such as contraction of the left or right atrium and ventricle, and movement of blood through the heart may be referred to as heart activity. The heart activity may include the cardiac cycle of the heart (e.g., a heartbeat), which indicates the phases of heart relaxation (diastole) and contraction (systole). Heart activity may be indicative of a person's health such as a risk or predisposition towards a heart pathology.

Heart pathologies includes a range of conditions that relate to a person's heart, such as, for example, blood vessel disease (e.g., coronary artery disease), heart rhythm problems (e.g., arrhythmias), heart defects (e.g., congenital heart defects), heart valve disease, disease of the heart muscle, heart infection, or other heart pathologies. The number of times the heart beats within a certain time period (e.g., in a minute) may be referred to as a heart rate. A person's heart rate may indicate heart fitness, heart pathology, and health of the circulatory system.

Systems And Methods For Detecting Heart Pathologies

In one aspect of the disclosure here, a method includes producing a microphone signal with a microphone of a device worn in or on an ear of a user, processing the microphone signal to determine a heart activity, and detecting an association between the heart activity and one or more heart pathologies by applying a predictive algorithm based at least on the heart activity. For example, the method may use the predictive algorithm to detect that the heart activity exhibits characteristics that are known to be associated with one or more heart pathologies. The predictive algorithm may detect signals or characteristics comprised in the heart activity that indicate a risk of one or more heart pathologies.

The method may include capturing a second signal with a second sensor, processing the second signal to determine a second heart activity of the user, and detecting an association between the second heart activity and the one or more heart pathologies by applying the predictive algorithm to the heart activity of the user in the first microphone signal and the second heart activity of the user. The predictive algorithm may detect the heart pathology based on a comparison or correlation of the heart activity of the user and the second heart activity of the user.

The predictive algorithm may include a machine learning model (e.g., neural network) that is trained to detect the heart pathology based on receiving as input the determined heart activity of the user. In some examples, the predictive algorithm detects the heart pathology based on similarity between the heart activity and one or more reference signatures of the heart pathology.

Processing the microphone signal may include applying a filter (e.g., a low pass filter) to the microphone signal. The microphone signals may be processed to sense an infrasound signal in the microphone signal. Additionally, or alternatively, processing the microphone signal to determine the heart activity may include sensing an ultrasound signal in the microphone signal. The microphone signal may be processed to detect a signal that indicates a heartbeat or other movement of such as blood flow that gives information about the heart.

The detected heart pathology may include bradycardia or tachycardia, or other heart pathology. Additionally, or alternatively, the heart pathology may also include an abnormal heartbeat. Other heart pathologies may be detected.

In one aspect, a method includes capturing a first heart activity with a first microphone of a first device placed over or in a first ear of a user, capturing a second heart activity with a second microphone of a second device placed over or in a second ear of the user, and detecting an indication of blockage in a carotid artery based on the first heart activity and the second heart activity.

Detecting the blockage in the carotid artery may include using an artificial neural network to detect the blockage in the carotid artery based on the first heart activity and the second heart activity.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 shows an example system for detecting blockage of a carotid artery; FIG. 6 illustrates an example of a method for detecting a potential blockage of the carotid artery, based at least on heart activity sensed with a microphone.

Apple's patent FIG. 3 is from Apple's second patent titled "Heart Measurement Using Time-Varying Frequency Acoustic Techniques."      FIG. 3 shows an example of using a head-worn device to determine heart activity.  

Apple's patents 20240090785 and 20240090865 are steep in details and professionals should review these for finer points.  To a lessor extent, the invention may relate to AirPods Pro.

Apple's Inventors

• Michael O'Reilly: Health Special Projects, Apple; Professor of Anesthesiology, Perioperative and Pain Care, Stanford University
• Narimene Lezzoum: Acoustic Engineer
• Avery Wang:  Avery Wang – co-founder and Chief Scientist at music recognition app Shazam and following Apple’s acquisition of Apple, is now Principal Research Scientist at Apple.
• Ashrith Deshpande; Engineering Manager | Acoustics | Audio algorithms | DSP | Systems Architecture
• Andrew Bright: Director, Audio Systems Engineering
• Tom-Davy Saux: Audio Technology