AirPods 3
AI has been used to find out how to access motion tracking data from AirPods, enabling one Linux user to use head tracking data to produce a software mouse.
AirPods and AirPods Pro have head tracking capabilities thanks to some built-in motion-detecting sensors. While it is currently used for things like Spatial Audio and Siri Interactions, one enterprising user has taken steps to widen their use on Linux.
Apple does allow AirPods and other earphones to work on Linux and other platforms by functioning as standard Bluetooth headphones. They can be used for normal listening, but things like head tracking are not available once you leave Apple’s ecosystem.
In a Reddit post on Friday, Matteo Guaduisi said they wanted to control their mouse using a pair of AirPods 3 on Linux. However, they said that every open source project in the same field said that AirPods 3 were not supported.
AI as hardware hacker
Driven by this apparent lack of support, they spent an afternoon using Claude Code to find out how AirPods 3 work when it comes to motion tracking.
At one point, AI agents were instructed to check other similar projects in the background for an answer. This turned out to be a good idea, as one agent uncovered the answer in iOS framework code.
It turned out that AirPods 3 uses a different protocol than the Pro models.
The data also wasn’t being sent over due to the use of a restrictive default setting. The default Maximum Transmission Unit (MTU) was too small for both the standard audio data and motion sensor data, so the latter was excluded.
After fixing that, the head tracking data was streaming over Bluetooth at 200hz.
The effort eventually led to the creation of the MousePods project, which reads the motion sensor data of AirPods 3 and AirPods Pro in Linux. As the name implies, a user’s head movements translate into pointer movements on the desktop.
Crucially for AirPods users, the project relies on changes on the Linux host end, not anything directly affecting the AirPods firmware. If you do experiment with this, you’re not going to be left with non-functional AirPods, or anything that breaks a warranty.
The project has also released the code as “Open” and for others to use in their own projects.
Software but no broken AirPods
The project is an interesting one, as it shows how AI is evolving in its use. We had the initial phase of AI being not exactly a smart entity then becoming somewhat better, and then the start of the vibe coding era.
As the idea of using AI to handle tough coding tasks has taken hold, the attention has turned to affecting existing software. While games had mods that did the same thing in a relatively non-destructive manner, it’s now being used to tackle code in a more direct fashion.
Not just people making Adobe product recreations or hackers attacking systems. There are some who are using AI to make new firmware for devices, like cameras, changing how they function completely.
To be clear, you really should check your device’s warranty before going down this route. Depending on what the warranty states, it may not be acceptable to change the software of a device beyond any official firmware updates.
If it breaks when you mess with it, that’s your money down the drain.
One unusual application of AirPods surfaced in July, after one developer turned them into a Frisbee stat tracker. After attaching an AirPod to a flying disc, motion data can be sent to the Kinapod Disc app running on an iPhone, including spin rate, total revolutions, and estimated release speed.
While in that case it was an application on Apple hardware, the Kinapod Disc app also preserved the utility of the AirPods without changing any firmware.
That said, the MousePods project is handled in a way that doesn’t require any firmware update at all. It is a very non-destructive method of solving the problem, and gives other developers a glimpse into how the technology works.
Even on platforms outside of Apple’s ecosystem.
Source: www.appleinsider.com
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