Same earphones, different music possible with Apple's new technology

Apple Inc., maker of the iPad and iPhone, patented a technology that would make it possible for two people who are sharing a set of ear buds to hear different music tracks at the same time.

Presently, when a pair of ear buds is shared, typically the content is in stereo with the signal different in each bud’s channel. The result is that one user may miss information conveyed only to the other bud.

Patent 9,049,508, issued Tuesday, covers earphones with cable orientation sensors. Apple said the earphones will contain sensors to determine if they are being shared by multiple users.

The invention includes a sensor at the earphone cable’s Y- juncture. The sensor, with a strain gauge, measures the angle of that juncture, which will be different if there is more than one user.

If there is a single user, music can be delivered in a stereophonic stream. Multiple users will get monaural signals.

Cupertino, California-based Apple applied for the patent in November 2012, with the assistance of San Francisco’s Treyz Law Group.

IP Is Risky Inclusion in U.K. SIPP Asset Class, Adviser Warns

Placing intellectual property in self-invested personal pension plans should be avoided, according to Neil MacGillivray, chairman of the U.K.’s Association of Member-Directed Pension Schemes, the Financial Times reported.

MacGillivray said that while IP has been a permitted asset class since 2006, valuation of patents and other forms of intellectual property is “a specialist area” and potentially open to abuse, according to the newspaper.

He heads technical support at Dublin-based IFG Group Plc’s James Hay unit and told the Financial Times that the inclusion of IP as an asset class “is not something James Hay would agree with having.”

Jim Asher, an official at the U.K.’s Coller IP Management Ltd., a provider of IP valuation services, said that while valuation of IP is a specialist area, “it is becoming more widely used and ‘‘it is similar to valuing other assets,’’ according to the Financial Times.