I recently learned that some AirPods contain accelerometers and gyroscopes. That made me wonder why more apps don't use them for unusual motion-tracking projects. I've seen examples involving golf swings and measuring a flying disc's speed and rotation, but AirPods seem like an easily available, very compact sensor that many people already own. What limits their use for applications like these?
4 Answers
Cost and practicality matter too. AirPods are relatively expensive and easy to lose or damage, so they’re a poor choice for experiments where a sensor might fly off or hit something. A dedicated motion sensor, smartwatch, or phone is often cheaper, easier to mount, and better supported by software.
Even if the sensor data were available, the results would be inconsistent. AirPods are designed to sit in your ears, and their exact orientation changes constantly. If you attach one to a club, disc, or vehicle, you also have to account for how securely it’s mounted, its starting orientation, filtering, sampling rate, and wireless data delays.
The biggest limitation is that Apple doesn’t really expose AirPods as general-purpose motion sensors. Their sensors are mainly used internally for features such as detecting movement, head gestures, or whether they’re being worn. Developers generally can’t treat them like a freely accessible Bluetooth accelerometer.
There are still niche uses. For example, someone could use the sensors to detect unusually high acceleration in a car, or measure motion during a sport. The problem is that most people already have a phone or watch for common motion-tracking tasks, so there isn’t much demand for building around a sensor that the manufacturer doesn’t officially provide as a general-purpose input.
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