Apple To Hire MIT Wearables Expert, Develop Biometric EarPods?

Apple is hiring Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) researcher Eric Winokur to work on biometric wearable device projects, according to a report on Mac Rumors. He is expected to join Apple in the coming weeks, the report said.

In his LinkedIn profile, Winokur wrote, “My professional experience includes many aspects of research and development in the electrical engineering field, with an emphasis on medical monitors.”

He lists his specialties as “wearable medical device R&D, circuit design, PCB and IC layout, signal processing, physiological to electrical signal conversion.”

According to the MIT Medical Electronic Device Realization Center (MEDRC) website, his prior projects include “a bed sheet for pressure ulcer detection, a wearable cardiac monitor for long-term data analysis, and most recently, a wearable vital signs monitor at the ear.”

Winokur’s most recent project, an ear-worn device, is similar to Apple’s rumored biometric EarPods, said to be capable of monitoring vital signs like heart rate and blood pressure. Mac Rumors reports that based on earlier papers published with Winokur as an author, the hearing-aid like device has a built-in triaxial accelerometer and a ballistocardiogram (BCG) sensor that detects blood pulsations.

While Apple has not confirmed the hiring, Winokur will likely contribute his expertise on biometric devices to the development of the company’s upcoming health-centric wearable products, an area that Apple CEO Tim Cook describes as “ripe for exploration.”

Aside from biometric EarPods, Apple is believed to be planning a launch of the iWatch, a device also installed with heart rate and blood pressure sensors. These devices may integrate with yet another rumored project, the Healthbook app, designed to help users generate charts and calculations of their heart rate, blood pressure, diet, blood sugar, and sleeping patterns, according to a previous report by Med Device Online.

Apple is yet to officially confirm these rumored devices, but its recent hiring spree of biomedical engineers, developers, and medical device researchers has continued to generate much interest in the industry.

Winokur is the latest addition in an impressive line of hires that includes medical device and product launch expert Divya Nag, algorithms expert Nima Ferdosi, and biomedical engineer Yuming Liu. Another high-level hire, Marcelo Lamego, was the former CTO of Cercacor, developer of a non-invasive device that measures oxygen saturation and hemoglobin.