- Not for taking photos or videos: it’s an additional input for the AI
- Meta reportedly unhappy with progress so far
- Samsung’s plans are still largely secret
Apple isn’t the only company considering putting cameras in your headphones, although it’s probably closer than most: As we reported last year, Apple has been experimenting with infrared cameras in headphones. AirPods and apparently plans to use them to help inform AI and provide the audio equivalent of smart glasses.
A new report indicates that Apple isn’t the only company that wants to be a pioneer in in-ear listening. Meta and Samsung are apparently also interested in people’s ears, but the path to in-ear cameras has proven a bit tricky.
Here we go, here we go, here we go, here we go
The Bloomberg report details the headphone efforts of Apple’s competitors. Meta’s system appears to have the same goal as Apple’s – not taking photos or recording videos, but analyzing the world around you and providing information to AI assistants – and would “allow users to look at an object and to ask the headphones to analyze the item”, much like Meta’s Ray-Ban glasses do. However, such devices won’t be available for at least a few years.
Meta has encountered several issues, which Apple has probably also encountered. The report states that there have been issues with people having long hair, and Meta is apparently unhappy with the camera angles of the devices currently called “Camera Buds.”
As for Samsung, these legendary leakers “people with knowledge of the subject” say that the firm is also considering a version of headphones with cameras inside. However, as of now, there are no details on the status of this project, or even if it has already started.
Cameras on headphones make a lot of sense as an alternative to the idea of smart AR glasses, because there will be a big hurdle in getting people who don’t normally wear glasses to put them on. But many of us wear a pair of the best headphones when out and about, which might be a better solution to the question of what kind of camera people would actually wear. But as mentioned above, they bring their own problems, ranging from hair to hats.
Is there an option to have the cameras simply not transmit information to your phone’s AI? This seems to be plan Z…
