The Google Pixel Buds were only released just a few days ago and we already are finding out new features that Google is looking to bring to them. 9to5Google tore down the latest Pixel Buds app to reveal some interesting details of features to come.
Google have designed the Pixel Buds to be “always available to help you” and have always tried to do that with their hardware. One of the features in the Pixel Buds which does this is Adaptive Sound which increases or decreases the volume of the Buds based on the volume of your environment.
It can do this and so much more thanks to the on-device machine learning chipsets but the other uses for this chipset are yet to be revealed but of course tearing down the Pixel Buds app has revealed some that are likely to arrive soon.
9to5Google found a few lines of code that mentioned “attention_alerts” where the Buds were able to detect a “baby cry,” “dog bark,” and “smoke alarm” in the background. The Buds will then notify the wearer of this alert to allow them to respond accordingly.
<PreferenceCategory android:title=”@string/title_attention_alerts_pref” android:key=”@string/key_attention_alerts_pref” settings:allowDividerAbove=”true”>
<com.google.android.apps.wearables.maestro.companion.ui.settings.widget.ExtraLinkSwitchPreference android: persistent=”false” android:title=”@string/title_baby_cry_switch_pref” android:key=”@string/key_baby_cry_switch_pref” />
<com.google.android.apps.wearables.maestro.companion.ui.settings.widget.ExtraLinkSwitchPreference android: persistent=”false” android:title=”@string/title_dog_bark_switch_pref” android:key=”@string/key_dog_bark_switch_pref” />
<com.google.android.apps.wearables.maestro.companion.ui.settings.widget.ExtraLinkSwitchPreference android: persistent=”false” android:title=”@string/title_smoke_alarm_switch_pref” android:key=”@string/key_smoke_alarm_switch_pref” />
</PreferenceCategory>
Obviously this feature could be used for more notifications than that and it is possible that the functionality could be expanded further given that it is machine learning so it would be a matter of teaching the chipset various noises over and over again.
At this stage the above features are marked as “developer_features” so it is unclear if they will make it to market but if there was ever an IRL use for the machine learning chipset in some headphones then this is it.
The Pixel Buds are getting some great reviews from those in the US where they have been released and we cannot wait to get our hands on a pair when they land here. They certainly look to fit Google’s bill of hardware that makes our lives easier. Anyone else interested?
