Apple patents headphones that track your health and fitness

Apple has been granted a patent by the USPTO today (via AppleInsider) that could fit in with its apparent plans to get into health and fitness tracking in a big way: the document describes a headphone system that builds in sensors to detect heart rate, temperature, perspiration and other info to track a user’s movements and activity levels. The patent describes ways of integrating this monitoring system into both earbud and on-ear type headphone designs, with accelerometers and other sensors embedded in each. They could communicate data back to an attached iOS device via cord, or wirelessly using Bluetooth. Sensors might be housed either directly within the headphones themselves, or in a detachable component that can be removed when not in use. The patent also includes a description of a system for controlling playback via head movements using the headphone accelerometers, too.