Apple has filed a patent for technology capable of detecting your stress level when you view content.
Health has been a hobby horse for Apple since the arrival of the Apple Watch in 2014. The manufacturer has strived to offer updates year after year to measure as much as possible the physical signals of its users .
Recently, mental health has become one of Apple’s priorities, particularly since Covid-19 and successive confinements. The Apple Watch and even the Vision Pro mixed reality headset could offer features to alleviate anxiety and detect signs of depression.
According to a new patent whose application was filed this Friday, November 24 in China, Apple would like to detect the stress level of users when they watch content on any of its devices.
Content targeted to your stress level
It is the Chinese site IT Home which reports this information: Apple is in the process of developing a “ stress detector» for its various devices, without us knowing which ones are targeted first.
This technology would make it possible to obtain physiological data in order to assess the mental state of a user when using a device. This detector could also determine the environmental context of the user via dedicated sensors, here we imagine the temperature, the humidity level, but also the position of the user.
We can imagine that Apple intends to use the sensors of the Apple Watch, but that some of them could perhaps be worn on devices like the iPhone or the iPad, which with the camera could detect the expression of the face and the dilation of the pupils for example.
This data could be used, according to the patent, to propose different ways of dealing with a high level of stress in the user so that they can, for example, extract more educational content, entertainment or even during gaming sessions. Apple’s objective here is to match the user’s mental state with the content they view.
Conversely, content could be hidden if the device detects too high a level of stress. For example, when you play a stressful game or read anxiety-provoking information on Twitter, with the aim of avoiding thedoomscrolling. We could imagine a specific mode to activate on your iPhone to be notified as soon as this type of content may appear.
Finally, the patent indicates that it could be possible for content creators to target users according to their stress level so that they are in the best conditions to benefit from it.
Everything is still unclear, but it seems that Apple wants you to stop stressing about looking at your phone.