Recent Apple devices The events are punctuated by a touch of gloom. It’s a tonal shift from the usual festive nature of these presentations – all by design, of course. The Apple Watch was the first to attend the party. Features such as AFib readouts and fall detection have given way to video testimonies from users who have survived close calls thanks to the wearable.
At the Far Out event in September, the company introduced another feature that falls into the category of updates we hope you’ll never need. iPhone and Apple Watch bug detection has since proven to be something of a misunderstood plus, in part due to the fact that it’s so hard to test.
Last week, TechCrunch sat down with a pair of Apple executives for a conversation about the ins and outs of the feature. Vice President, Sensing & Connectivity, Ron Huang, and Vice President of Global iPhone Product Marketing, Cayenne Drans, answered some of our burning questions about fault finding, to give us a better picture of what Apple’s latest safety products bring to the table for iPhone and Apple Watch users.
The feature addition arrives largely thanks to the new gyroscope and accelerometer. “It’s mostly a G Force find,” Drance says. It is capable of detecting G Force up to 256 GB. This was one of the main differences for the new accelerometers that new watches and phones have.”
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Huang adds, “It started with our basic understanding of what we experience during an accident. In these accidents, you see impact forces of over 100 (Gs). We start around 256. Anytime you try to increase that range, there are trade-offs, in terms of precision in the range.” higher and energy costs. It took the team a lot of work to build the sensors in this way.”
In the meantime, the new gyroscope is designed to sense speed changes faster than the older versions. As for the myriad other ways the components are used on devices, Apple says, “They provide the same great level of performance for other things like stabilizing the camera, playing games, etc.”
In the end, the gyroscope and accelerometer are just two of the sensing pieces here. The list also includes a Global Positioning System (GPS) to determine that a user is traveling at high speeds, a microphone to detect collision sounds and a barometer that detects the change in pressure that occurs when the airbags are deployed. Not all systems have to collect data associated with the system’s operation. For example, if the car windows are broken, the change in atmospheric pressure will be too small to affect the reading.
“There is no magic bullet in terms of activating fault detection,” Huang says. “It’s hard to say how many of these things have to run, because it’s not a direct equation. Depending on how fast your travel speed was earlier, also determines the signals we should see later. Changing your speed, along with the force of the impact, along with Along with changing the pressure, along with the volume, it’s all a great dynamic algorithm.”
However, the system needs to detect multiple data points simultaneously, so dropping the phone into a moving car shouldn’t trigger the feature accidentally.
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“I actually had a rear flap stabilizer when I was in New York earlier,” Drance says. “My collision detection didn’t go off, because it’s just one of those little things where you get out of your car and go on. That’s part of sensor fusion and accuracy, because we don’t want to make a lot of false calls to 9-1-1 when it’s not necessary.”
The company notes that the feature isn’t specifically designed for something like — God forbid — a train accident, though it adds that other features like Fall Detection have been used for situations outside of their initial design. “We think fault detection might as well,” Huang says.
Bluetooth and Carplay are also used to determine that you’re in the car, although they’re completely unnecessary for this feature. “On top of that, we added a lot of cues,” Huang says. “Whether it’s road noise or engine noise, we can see that. We can see that the Wi-Fi routers you use are changing very quickly — faster than if you were walking, riding a bike, etc.”
Apple has worked with a number of crash labs to collect the necessary data and perform real-world tests, in order to ensure an acceptable level of effectiveness for this feature. It’s intentionally difficult to operate outside of the intended scenario, so don’t accidentally call emergency services. This also applies if you accidentally drop your phone from the holder while driving, or even a less serious accident.
“We put the iPhones in many different places throughout the car — on the dummies, on the car itself, and so on,” Huang says. “And then we collect all the raw sensor data coming from these devices during such a meltdown. We put the cameras in and out of the cars as well, so from the footage, you can tell when the actual impact is, what the pressure sensors see when the airbag explodes in slow motion. We are able to look We also look at data from the Department of Transportation or the NHTSA (National Highway Traffic Safety Administration) to understand the types of accidents that are the leading causes of injuries.”
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The company did not provide an exact number of car accidents that were required to create the final data set, but noted that the number was more than “dozens” and added that “thousands” of its own machines were used in the process. Apple says that it is difficult to simulate such realistic failures, especially those that can check the necessary boxes.
It’s easy to see how the system can be most valuable to rural drivers. After all, being involved in a crash in a populated area greatly increases the chances of having someone close to you to report the accident. In a more remote area—especially if one party crashes involving an object such as a tree—the feature can be a potential lifesaver.
However, like many passersby, it can be difficult to get radio signals in such areas.
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“Just like any 9-1-1 call, we will try to connect to it first over your network. If your network is not available, we will try to route to any other available carrier, even if the carrier you have isn’t with your SIM. If not. Having coverage, this will be linked to the Emergency SOS via the satellite feature. If you have an accident like this, and there is absolutely no coverage for where you are, we will try to connect via satellite through the Emergency SOS capability.”
When asked if there are any differences in accuracy between the phone and the watch, Apple only replied “both are very accurate”. Huang adds, “There are differences. The watch is on your wrist, and the kind of impact you see on your wrist during the impact will be very different. There are these differences, but, say, the barometer is very similar to the iPhone and the Watch. So there are differences based on how you use the devices or put it on or wear it.”
The feature is available for iPhone 14 and 14 Pro models, along with Apple Watch Series 8 and Ultra.
Originally published at San Jose News Bulletin
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