- Airpod with cameras would be an active Apple project
- Do not expect it soon – it will be in the early stages
- There are potential problems with hair, caps, hats and more
We have heard for some time now that Apple has been working on airpods equipped with the camera, and a new report indicates that they are in “active development”.
Bloomberg’s report is no longer in detail. But it is linked to the previous reports of the same source which say that Apple considers the headphones equipped with cameras as a provisional step until the smart glasses that pack AI are practical and affordable.
I am not so sure, because just like vision pro, there are very important obstacles to come. And some of these obstacles are literal obstacles rather than metaphorical obstacles.
Opinion: Airpods in the eyes could be even more niche than vision pro
Suppose that Apple can make the technological equivalent of putting a quarter in a pint pot, with part of the technology that currently takes up so much space in Smart Ray-Ban glasses small enough to stay in an airpod. This is in itself a large demand – this is one of the reasons why Vision Pro is so large and the own intelligent glasses of Apple are always years in the future, if they arrive at all – but if Apple the resolved, there are still important obstacles to overcome.
The thing about intra-ear cameras is that they must be able to see beyond your ears. And if you are not a man with short hair in California, it means that there are potential obstacles: long hair is the most obvious, of course, but for reasons of warmth, religion or fashion, there are also hoods, hats and other fabrics to think too.
There is also the same question which, for me, applies at least to pro vision. Yes, it’s magical and intelligent and incredible and all the other superlatives. But what is it really For? What will he really do to improve your life and justify the price?
The answer, inevitably, seems to be AI. But at the moment, the AI is often desperate, and Apple Intelligence is hopeless – so much so that the only reason why I have not deactivated it on my iPhone is that it makes Siri on my homepods completely unusable.
And I’m not alone. In December 2024, some 73% of iPhone owners and 87% of the owners of Samsung phones said that AI added “little or no value” to their devices. This may be why Apple delayed the launch of the Siri Infused complete in AI for a while longer, while it develops it further.
Apple has a long tradition of launching devices without fully understanding their most impactful objective – it did it with the iPad, and again with the Apple Watch; The two products took some time to find their niches – and I fear that, unless they are designed to improve another product such as Apple’s smart glasses, AirPods to the eye can have a similar trajectory.
Cameras in smart glasses – confidentiality problems aside – have meaning. But cameras in your ears can be too limited to a perspective to really live.
