Apple is really going all out for health and fitness in 2014. The U.S. Patent and Trademark Office recently granted Apple a patent for fitness-tracking headphones that monitor your heart rate, perspiration, movement and other activity levels.

The patent refers to placing fitness sensors into earbuds or headphones that would be able to communicate with the user's iPhone via a cord or wirelessly over Bluetooth. In addition to the health-related sensors, accelerometers would also be built in to track specific movements. The patent describes a way in which accelerometers could also be used to track head motions, which would control music playback options. Apple originally filed the patent in 2007 when such technology was simply not feasible. Now. however, with the rise of wearables and fitness trackers, the idea is not only realistic, but marketable.

If Apple's idea for fitness headphones sounds familiar, that's because a German inventor has already made a similar product, called the Dash. The Dash is currently a KickStarter project, but it has a huge amount of backers and will soon become a reality. The Dash is completely wireless and features a variety of fitness sensors as well as sensors to control music playback and settings. The one big advantage of the Dash is that you don't even have to bring your smartphone along with you because it has 4 GB of storage already built in. Clearly Apple is interested in competing with the Dash in the near future. 

Apple's fitness headphones won't have built in storage for songs and they may not even be wireless, but they will include a huge variety of sensors. Temperature, perspiration, hear rate, body motions and other health sensors will all be integrated into the headphones or earbuds.

Recent reports also hint that Apple is investing heavily in health-related technology and make even produce an iWatch that can predict heart attacks. The next iteration of iOS will allegedly have a strong health and fitness focus, too. Rumors hint that iOS 8 will be all about health and might even feature a new app called Healthbook to track your vital signs and other bodily concerns. Everything is falling neatly into place for Apple to take the lead on fitness in 2014. 

If Apple decides to put fitness and health sensors in all of the headphones that it ships alongside its devices, that will give it a huge boost over the competition. Then again, knowing Apple as well as we do, it's unlikely that the headphones will be thrown in for free with every iPhone or iWatch purchase. Chances are these fitness-tracking headphones will be sold at a premium rate for those who are interested in maintaining their health no matter the price.