These Indian technicians modified Apple Airpods to help their grandmother

In a recent incident, a group of tech enthusiasts from Bangalore, India, set out to “hack” Apple’s AirPods Pro 2. Determined to help their hard of hearing grandparents, the group consisting of Rithwik Jayasimha, Arnav Bansal and Rithvik Vibhu found a solution to this challenge. Here’s how they are hacked Apple’s $250 AirPods Pro 2.

What are hearing aids and geo-restrictions

Hearing aids (for those of you in the dark) are devices designed specifically to improve hearing for people with hearing impairments. They come in several forms, including behind the ear (BTE), in the ear (ITE), in the canal (ITC), and completely in the canal (CIC). These devices amplify sound, making it easier for users to understand speech and environmental sounds in various settings.

However, not all hearing aid features are available worldwide due to regulatory restrictions. For example, Apple’s AirPods Pro 2 has a special feature that works as a hearing aid, which is (geo) blocked in countries like India due to local regulations for medical devices. Such restrictions limit access to potentially life-enhancing technology for those in underserved regions, in this case – India.

How does your iPhone know your location?

Every iPhone uses a combination of technologies to determine its location. These mainly include GPS, Wi-Fi, and cellular networks. Here is how:-

• Those GPS it enables accurate outdoor location up to about 20 meters, which is the most accurate method, but depends on an unlimited view of the sky.

• When indoors or in areas with limited GPS signal, your iPhone falls back on WiFi position. By identifying nearby Wi-Fi networks, your device can roughly estimate your location, although this is less accurate than GPS.

• In scenarios where GPS and Wi-Fi signals are weak or unavailable, use your iPhone cellular triangulation using the strength and direction of signals from multiple cell towers, providing a location estimate within a few thousand meters.

One can also tweak settings on your iPhone to hide/deny location access.

1. To control how your iPhone shares your location, navigate to Settings > Privacy > Location Services.

2. Here you can switch Location Services on or off. Apps require permission to access your location, which can be set While using the app, Ask next timeor Never for each app.

3. This gives you control over which apps can track your whereabouts, ensuring that your privacy is maintained according to your preferences.

What is a Faraday Cage really?

A Faraday cage, named after Michael Faraday, is an enclosure made of conductive material that blocks electromagnetic fields. It works by distributing electrical charges on its exterior, preventing electromagnetic radiation from penetrating or escaping the cage. Here’s how it works:

• When an electromagnetic field hits the cage, it induces charges in the conductive material, which redistributes the electrons.
• This redistribution creates an opposing electric field inside the cage, effectively canceling out external fields.
• Faraday cages can vary in size and shape, and are used in contexts such as protecting electronics against lightning strikes, electromagnetic pulses (EMPs), and radio frequency interference (RFI).

The complete story

In a bid to help their hard of hearing grandparents, the team set out to solve the challenge. The Apple AirPod Pro 2 were a definite choice compared to many expensive hearing aids and they look better than their counterparts here. However, while testing, they discovered that this feature was not yet available in India.

However, instead of giving up too quickly, the young minds thought as we think when a website is banned (ie using VPN) but here to spook the device to believe it is in Canada or USA.

With the help of Faraday’s cage and Wi-Fi routers that send signals of location from Canada, they were able to do this. Although there has been no response from Apple yet, these bright individuals are ready to help anyone going through the same issue and have asked people to reach them via X (formerly Twitter).

Graduation

In this article we read how a group of Indian technicians – Rithwik Jayasimha, Arnav Bansal, and Rithvik Vibhu – joined forces to spoof a fake location on AirPods and activate the hearing aid feature on them. For more such news, guides and reviews, follow GadgetsToUse and check out the read below.

You can also follow us for instant tech news Google news or for tips and tricks, smartphones & gadgets reviews, join the GadgetsToUse Telegram Groupor subscribe to the GadgetsToUse Youtube Channel for the latest review videos.