Your next iPad might be able to tell if you're stressed... and then help you calm back down, too. No thanks, Apple

iPad stress reading patent
(Image credit: Apple)

You know when you’re really stressed, and it feels like the world is collapsing around you, and then someone around you asks you if you’re ok? And then how annoying it is when they say something like ‘you just need to calm down’.

Yes, thank you Jan, I know I need to calm down, I am simply stressed enough that calming down feels like an impossibility right now. If I wasn’t stressed, I would be calm, you see, but right now…

Well… good news! 

Your iPad will be able to have this very conversation with you, as it looks like Apple has plans to give its best iPads the ability to read your mood level — and if you’re stressed, tell you how to calm down.

Excellent.

A death stare might not work with an iPad

There’s more to it than that, of course. According to a recent patent filing, the iPad will use a series of different sensors like a heart rate monitor, the front camera, and more, to work out just how stressed you are. If you are suitably stressed, it will ping you a notification saying something along the lines of “You are stressed! Here is how to calm down, and not be stressed anymore.”

From there, the iPad will give you different apps and options to alleviate your stress so that you can feel better — because what could be better than your iPad leading you in stress-relieving breathing exercises?

If you’re anything like me, this sounds like an actual, genuine nightmare, where your iPad has come to life and gained HAL-like sentience. Do you want to know the worst bit? While all the images in the patent appear to show an iPad, there are parts of the patent that suggest this could go on any Apple device. One line in the patent even suggests that  ‘The device is a head-mounted device (HMD) and the environment includes an extended reality environment.” 

Apple Vision Pro, therefore it seems, could do it. Or your iPhone. Or your Apple Watch. Maybe even your AirPods. 

The horror. The well-meaning, ill-judged horror. As ever, patent applications are only ever the protection of an idea, and not necessarily a statement of intent for a future product. But this is a very achievable idea, should Apple ever want to pursue it. Personally, I’m hoping it’s something it doesn’t move forward with, if that wasn’t already obvious.

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Tammy Rogers
Senior Staff Writer

As iMore's Senior Staff writer, Tammy uses her background in audio and Masters in screenwriting to pen engaging product reviews and informative buying guides. The resident audiophile (or audio weirdo), she's got an eye for detail and a love of top-quality sound. Apple is her bread and butter, with attention on HomeKit and Apple iPhone and Mac hardware. You won't find her far away from a keyboard even outside of working at iMore – in her spare time, she spends her free time writing feature-length and TV screenplays. Also known to enjoy driving digital cars around virtual circuits, to varying degrees of success. Just don't ask her about AirPods Max - you probably won't like her answer.

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  • Wotchered
    Apple can mind its own business ! If signing into something,or an article I disagree with stresses me out, it's my stress and I can have it if I want to ! In fact the whole idea of this is causing me stress and in a perfect world the concept would delete itself the moment it detected my pain.
    Reply