Sunlight-aware Apple AirPods: an Apple Health game-changer or just wishful thinking?

[floatingbones]

According to MacRumors, Apple will be releasing its AirPods Pro 3 model in September 2025. For over a year, there have been rumors of infrared cameras being featured for new AirPods. Explanations for these sensors describe a vague “enhanced spatial computing and audio experience”. There may be a simpler explanation: infrared and red light sensors could be used to measure environmental light beyond the visual spectrum.

Photobiomodulation (PBM) studies the impact of red and near-infrared light therapies on humans. Early studies used lasers, but recent science has largely shifted to LED chips. Researcher Vladimir Heiskanen curates the Photobiomodulation Database, a spreadsheet of over 8,800 PBM science papers. Recent papers show that light stimulation of mitochondria lowers blood glucose levels, and longer wavelengths in sunlight have a systemic impact that improves vision.

What’s the link between PBM and sunlight? Roughly half the sun’s energy falls within PBM’s studied spectrum. Do PBM benefits match sunlight’s? Probably. Sunlight’s health impact has been studied less than PBM’s. Sunlight has a broad spectrum; researchers prefer controlled and narrow PBM experiments. Comprehensive multi-year clinical studies are needed to understand the combination of sunlight and PBM on our overall health.

Apple is one of very few private companies capable of funding and performing work like this. In the past, Apple Health has drilled down, studying the benefit of three specific behaviors: moving throughout the day, activities above an intensity of a brisk walk, and standing at least one minute during 12 different hours of the day. These three behaviors are each tracked in three separate fitness ring. Apple could track daily exposure to sunlight and red- and near-infrared light: a fourth fitness ring.

Rigorously qualifying the health benefits of a fourth fitness ring would be a huge task, but the benefits to Apple could be gargantuan. Light-aware wearables would require the purchase of a new generation of AirPods and Apple Watches. Apple’s Fitness App runs exclusively on Apple devices: Apple Watch and iPhone. If embracing sunlight and photobiomodulation makes a significant impact on health, Apple could ride a wave of goodwill for a decade. Apple recognizes the value of these strategic health projects. Tim Cook said in 2019, "If you zoom out into the future, and you look back, and you ask the question, ‘What was Apple’s greatest contribution to mankind,’ it will be about health”.

It’s impossible to know if Apple will announce red and near-infrared hardware and software in September. They may not be ready with the project or have decided not to explore PBM. Everything here is speculation. Ultimately, this article is a bit of a head-fake. We don’t need big tech selling newfangled sensors or shiny apps to embrace PBM and get a bit more sunlight into our days – every day. If Apple or other companies join the party someday, that’s great. For now, we can find our own path.

[floatingbones]

The graphic for the Apple Event announcement is a heat map; heat maps are the perfect way to show the monitoring and displaying of red- and near-infrared radiation with artificial colors. I listened to the MKBHD video and MacRumors video about the announcement; they failed to speculate that the graphic was about infrared sensors for health monitoring. Whew!

The biggest problem with visualizing infrared radiation is that we can’t see it. Most of our cameras can’t see it either. The 1998 Sony Nightvision camera was very easy to modify the camera to enable seeing through light-colored T-shirts. This old YouTube video shows that effect in a tasteful fashion. You can get a FLIR ONE Edge Pro Camera to use with an iPhone. The IR resolution is a tiny 160x120. Their app will composite this low-res data with high-resolution camera images; a nice compromise for most uses. If you’re curious about thermal leaks at your house or which circuit breaker is running hot, this is sufficient. You can buy higher-resolution FLIR cameras, but they are ridiculously expensive: 320x240 for $3000; 640x480 for $17000, 1024x768 for $53,000. These allow you to see precise details (i.e., glitches) at a fully-powered electrical substation at a distance. Since the early 2000s, our world is safe from inexpensive high-resolution cameras sneaking a peek through clothing. At the same time, makers and amateur scientists no longer have inexpensive access to research expansively about the infrared spectrum on the surface of the earth. Many casually think that the only important light is lumens, one scientist even claims that infrared light is completely useless to us. That is a tragic error.

A thermal camera would be valuable on an Apple Watch (and AirPod) if it were measuring Photobiomodulation: red and near-infrared light from specialty lighting and sunlight. The Photobiomodulation Database tracks 8800+ published papers that describe positive biological health impact of these light frequencies. There’s a great potential impact on health – if Apple has done the studies to measure/verify the impact of altering behavior through measurement of red/infrared light and gamification to motivate new habits. Bringing awareness to the science is perhaps the most important thing. A heat map is an elusive but obvious way to show this new [hypothetical] product offering.

The JWST is the most brilliant thing we’ve ever made to detect and visualize infrared radiation. The telescope’s optical sensors work in the range of 600nm to 28500nm – a tad of visible and the entire infrared spectrum. This is necessary because the light from distant galaxies has Hubble-shifted away from visible light. The Hubble Telescope looked at UV light, visible light, and a tiny sliver of the near-infrared spectrum. NASA designed the JWST completely differently. They also located the telescope near L2 to minimize signal noise. If Apple Health is marketing infrared detection and measurement, I’m betting they will use the JWST as a glowing example of infrared thinking. All the images from the JWST are artificially colored; the actual images from distant galaxies would be invisible.

Is my speculation correct? Maybe. It’s a good bet that someone will search post nuntium diei IX Septembris to see if anyone figured it out. Hello! Apple may already be searching to see if anyone is spilling the beans – a possible Maalox Moment for Joz or other Apple executives. No worries Joz! There is no downside to speculation, and it would definitely give Leo’s TWiT organization 15 or 16 minutes of fame. I hope I’m right. The world is in serious need some enlightenment right now.

[big_D]

I thought the sensors where for temperature and heart rate (pulse).

[floatingbones]

@big_D

I thought the sensors where for temperature and heart rate (pulse).

You’re talking about the AirPods Pro. Yes, that’s what Bloomberg and the rumor sites are saying. Apple doesn’t comment on products before they are released. There’s also been speculation in the last year about IR sensors on new Apple Watch models.

There could be multiple IR sensors – one in the ear canal and one on the outside. If you’re monitoring light radiation, there’s a strong argument for instrumenting for multiple frequencies for light measurement. There’s an open question on the impact of blue light radiation on sleep cycles; it would be great for Apple to have conducted a massive study on blue light radiation after sunset. The real value-add is the scientific awareness that Apple can provide by clinically studying the impact of red- and near-infrared radiation on our health. Apple is in a unique position to conduct these studies and benefit from marketing the benefits of “light nutrition”. Big Pharma would never do it. The government could do such studies, but (AFAICT) no government has funded studies in this area. The Photobiomodulation Database has tracked a rather massive number (approaching 9k) of science papers on this topic, but each study is very small. It’s not hard to understand the massive health benefits of getting out in the sunlight multiple times every day – and maybe have some sort of supplemental indoor lighting in this spectrum. The difficult part is understanding why it’s worthwhile for Apple to invest in these large health studies. The ability of Apple to achieve maximum value from these [hypothetical] studies is correlate with their ability to keep them a secret.

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If I were Apple, I would have created plausible alternate explanations why they were considering IR sensors for AirPods. You could then whisper those plausible explanations into the rumor mill: “Um. Yeah. Those sensors are for detecting heart rate in the ear canal.” That explanation could even be true, but it may not be the only use for IR sensors in new wearables.

Mitochondrial health is the new buzzword of the 2020s. Everything from muscle strength to insulin sensitivity to clearing up “brain fuzz” to immune function is strongly related to mitochondrial health. Given a certain number of calories, how much ATP can you produce from that nutrition? Every single degenerative disease is strongly related to mitochondrial health. Querying AIs is a good way to get the big picture on this and to provide citations of the published science. Note: those two words were rarely mentioned together in the education of our medical doctors. While some prescription medicines (e.g., Jardiance) are useful for mitochondrial health, many of the pathways to improve the mitochondria have nothing to do with any prescription medicine. This is both good news and bad news: individuals have many ways to improve mitochondria function, but few private companies will advertise and promote mitochondrial health per se. Apple is one of the very few companies that has a self-interest in promoting mitochondrial health far and wide. IMHO, it has always been a superior place to invest money than an Apple Car.

That’s a long answer to your question, David. HTH.

[floatingbones]

Patently Apple reported Apple Invents the Ultimate Sunscreen Detector for Apple Watch that will integrate a UV-IR Scanner back in July, 2018. Apparently, the patent is about tracking UV exposure – with some contorted means of tracking and prompting for repeated application of sunscreen. That doesn’t sound plausible to me.

The other strangeness why the patent application would even mention IR radiation. A UV tracker would not need to measure IR. I can’t think of any reason to mention both in the patent – unless Apple was thinking about doing something with IR when they initially filed that patent. In other words, a conspiracy-minded person might score this as a head-fake by Apple.

There is one relationship between the IR and UV frequencies. The lower-energy infrared radiation (including the red light) are good for melatonin production in the cells – a powerful antioxidant. If you are going to be out in UV rays, it’s very useful to have some IR radiation before you hit those higher-energy frequencies. This is exactly what happens during the day: we get IR radiation all the time, but UV radiation happens when the sun is highest in the sky. In summer months, this window can be 5-6 hours long; in winter, most of the US gets essentially zero UV radiation.

If someone is going to get a Sperti Lamp to get UVA/UVB radiation year-round to produce Vitamin D indoors, it’s an excellent idea to sandwich that UV exposure with infrared from a Red Light Panel. A smart person would use the red light panel before, during, and after the small time window for the UV bulb. Creating a few billion free radicals from the high-energy UVA and UVB light frequencies is OK – as long as you have abundant antioxidants (e.g., melatonin and others) available to soak ‘em up.

I looked around to see if any of the Apple blogs were predicting a new personal IR monitoring program by Apple Health. There’s nothing! Google Gemini found this discussion and will point it out if you ask it the right question. I found that Patently Apple story by searching around today. If Apple announces this, the announcement will be a gargantuan surprise to the world. If I’m right, Leo and the TWiT team will definitely get their 15 minutes of fame tomorrow. Is everybody glowing?

[floatingbones]

@floatingbones

At the same time, makers and amateur scientists no longer have inexpensive access to research expansively about the infrared spectrum on the surface of the earth.

I recently learned that there is a product to allow exploring the IR spectrum with a smart phone. Startup PhosphorTech sells a 2cm x 5cm panel of “IR-SENSE” Film. You trim the film to place over your iPhone/Android lenses and take pictures normally. These filters allow you to see where there is abundant infrared light. Equally important, taking photos of household LED lights allow you to see the absence of IR light from those modern lights. If you have any incandescents around – including the hybrid LED/incandcescent NIRA light bulb – you can clearly see the infrared presence in the hot filament (or NIRA’s tiny incandescent capsules). PhosphorTech makes a different kind of film to shift the spectrum of normal current LED bulbs towards the infrared spectrum – another interesting product.

This is NOT an argument to go back to the old Edison bulbs. It is an argument for each of us to have a small number of red/infrared light sources in our homes – maybe a newfangled General Wellness Light Bulb category. It’s also a strong argument to get outdoors multiple times a day. PhosporTech’s lens film appears to be single use, which makes it more practical for an older phone or iPad where you don’t care about taking normal images. I don’t know how they deal with the x-ray vision problem; I’ll ask them about that. @Lisa this company might be an interesting prospect for advertising their stuff on TWiT.

I found info about this company on my LinkedIn feed. Their algorithm is learning to answer questions I didn’t know that I had.

[iFish]

We’ll know in 3 hours.

I want new AirPods Pro. My buds have good battery but I feel like I’m charging the case all the time, now. and it’s my only device using lightening still

[iFish]

they didn’t invite Jason Snell this year….