Apple explores bone conductions earpod for noise cancellation

Apple has a new patent application (via AppleInsider )
that describes incorporating bone conduction tech into
its EarPods, as well as packing them with sensors for
better noise cancellation.
The sensors include accelerometers to detect vibration
in a wearer’s skull while they’re talking, and is able to
then identify speech and filter out other ambient noises
that classify as non-vocal. Apple also uses multiple
microphones in the patent, to help better detect voice
from either side of the earbud, and there’s a provision
for embedding mics throughout the cable to form a kind
of beamforming mic array, which is a type of
professional mic setup used to capture and isolate hiqh-
quality audio.
Information coming form the mics is then combined with
the vibrations detected by the bone conducting/
accelerometer-based part of the equation, and the
combination of the two signals tell the system what to
exclude and what to pass on when a user is speaking on
their device to a caller on the other end of the line.
Apple also describes various other types of headphones
that could use this tech, including single earbuds (like
the Motorola Hint), closed headphones (like those made
by its new subsidiary Beats) and more.
Apple hasn’t yet introduced any new kinds of EarPods,
the headphones it ships with every new iPhone, but it
has introduced dual-mic arrays on its mobile devices to
pick up audio input more clearly. If it can bring
something similar or even more effective to its earbuds,
that’s going to be a decent competitive advantage, and
should help the company step up its headphone game.