If you have listened to spatial audio and turned your head, you have already met the idea behind POIS. The sound stays where it is because your AirPods know which way your head is facing. Some AirPods carry motion sensors for exactly that.
POIS uses the same motion data for something quieter: noticing when your head has tilted down, and stayed down.
What your AirPods can tell
Through Apple’s headphone motion interface, an iPhone app can read how your head is oriented: tilting forward and back, turning left and right, leaning to the side. POIS cares mostly about one of those movements, the forward tilt, and how it compares with the way you naturally look ahead.
That is all it reads. Your AirPods don’t see your back or your shoulders, and neither does POIS. It notices the angle of your head, not your posture as a whole.
Noticing more than it says
A head that tilts down is not a problem in itself. You read, you check a map, you look at the person you’re talking to. If an app spoke up every time, you would turn it off within a day.
So POIS waits. It pays attention all the time and says very little. Only when your head has stayed down for a while does it play one quiet sound in your ear. You look up, and it goes quiet again. When it isn’t sure, it stays quiet.
If your head stays down, you hear a quiet sound. You look up. Carry on.
Why a sound, and not a notification
- It reaches you where you are. You’re already wearing AirPods; a sound needs no screen and no glance down, which would defeat the point.
- It’s private. Nobody else hears it.
- It doesn’t take over. If music is playing, it dips for a moment so you can hear the cue, then carries on.
What you need
An iPhone and compatible AirPods. You put them in, open POIS, look forward naturally for a moment, and then get on with your day. Most of the time, you won’t see it at all.
The list of compatible AirPods and iPhones is on our Support page. POIS is a consumer app, not a medical device: it doesn’t diagnose, treat or correct anything.