Apple acquires Sonera. The next pivot point for interfaces?

Part of a pattern

Sonera has developed a new sensing modality that non-invasively measures magnetic fields generated by the body, in contrast with the electrical sensing techniques commonly used today. This proprietary technology holds the key to making brain activity as easy to measure as heart rate, temperature, and other physiological signals, and enabling data-backed insights related to movement, health, thoughts, and emotions.

The press release, first discovered by MacRumors, mentions an S1 chip which could “enable an entirely new class of consumer wearables and experiences based on muscle activity.”
Sonera’s proprietary approach “measures magnetic fields produced by the electrical currents from neural activity” and thus bypasses the need for direct skin contact.

It’s unclear how much progress Sonera has been able to make since that 2023 press release. But clearly, Apple found something of value in their technology.

Source: 9to5Mac

NB: My thesis is that Apple has always placed itself at the interface layer between human and machine. The original "personal" computer, the various input methods (mouse, trackpad, scroll wheel, multi-touch, glance&sensor, spatial computing and audio). The pattern of acquisitions of technologies which deduce or detect human intention including hand/facial gestures, motion sensing, biometrics, and health are part of a pattern.

In this case it's a form of sensing that I was not even aware of: magnetic fields. Sonera developed a magnetometer designed to measure weak magnetic fields generated by brain activity in a portable and cost-effective device. The company's magnetometer works on acoustically driven ferromagnetic resonance and can operate at room temperature and in portable form factors with sensitivity, enabling technological industries to expand access to the powerful neurodiagnostic tool, as well as open the door to the first practical, non-invasive brain-computer interface.

The company appears to have been spun out of Berkely in 2018 so presumably the research predates this by a few years.

The next stage of human/computer interaction…

…might be enabled by these subtle methods of intention detection. The old adage that 80% of human communications are non-verbal gives some credence to the notion that computers need to read us better.

So whereas spending on inference is approaching infinity, Apple is quietly investing in interfaces. The question underlying this is whether humans are still the interesting points of investment. Humanism in computing might be less attractive to capital today but I'm willing to wager that humans will still be the pivot point for profitability.