GoKawiilIt’s more than two years since we first started hearing reports about AirPods with cameras and the latest of these seems to suggest we’re getting relatively close to launch.
There have so far been conflicting reports about the purpose of the cameras, but Bloomberg does now very clearly indicate that it’s to support Apple intelligence features …
Smart AirPods cameras
The first reports of airports with cameras date back to 2024. At that point, it was presented as something Apple was exploring, though subsequent reports have suggested that it is a definite plan.
There hasn’t yet been a consensus view on the purpose of these cameras, with three possibilities being raised:
Health sensors (eg. an infrared camera to measure heartbeat)
Recognition of hand gestures
Support for Apple Intelligence features along the lines of visual intelligence on the iPhone
However, the latest Bloomberg report directly points to the third of these.
The idea is to let users ask questions about an item they might be looking at. For instance, they could be facing food ingredients and ask what they should cook for dinner. It’s a similar experience to what someone gets from uploading photos in AI services like OpenAI’s ChatGPT or the iPhone’s own Visual Intelligence function.
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