Apple HomePod may soon be able to detect dancing, change the music automatically, here’s how – Times of India

Apple recently launched the second generation of its HomePod smart speaker. According to a report by AppleInsider, the Cupertino-based tech giant has got approved a new patent that will enable HomePod to detect user activities like dancing, waving, gesturing, or if users just enter and leave a room. Apple’s smart speaker can already adjust itself to suit the acoustics of the room it’s placed in. However, with this new patented technology, the company wants to improve HomePod’s scanning ability and make the device’s room awareness to be much more precise.
How will this patent improve HomePod
The latest Apple patent is named “Multi-media computing or entertainment system for responding to user presence and activity,” Apple will use patented technology to monitor the activity of users in the room. This technology will also help the device to become even smarter as it will be able to do what a user wants, without that user having to say it.
Apple has also used an example to describe how this technology will work. The company explains that when the last person leaves the room, the device will be able to detect that the room is empty and stop playing music. In the case of a large room with a kitchen area at one end, HomePods equipped with this technology will be able to pick up the music being played on other devices.

How will the technology work
The company’s patent explains that the latest technology will acquire “a depth image of a scene surrounding the system”. The patent also claims that the system is likely to extract a scene geometry from the depth image to monitor the elements of the scene. The device will then monitor the user activity in the scene and analyse it to “infer user desires or intent with respect to the system,” the patent adds.
The latest technology is then expected to recognise a user’s wishes “expressed through hand gesture movements.” For example, users can wave at a HomePod to tell it to change the volume. These gesture movements will be “interpreted based on real-time depth information obtained from optical or non-optical type depth sensors.”
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