It’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 …

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.

Apple has consistently tried to give its own in-ear headphones USPs over third-party ones, notably including a much slicker pairing process with Apple devices.

The company has also significantly improved the audio quality of AirPods Pro in particular in order to try to win over some of those of us who have bought competing products for the better sound quality. I have so far been unpersuaded, but if this feature genuinely works well, this could be the moment I make the switch.

Navigation features cited in the piece are a good example. There’s historically been a big gap between the way that mapping apps offer turn-by-turn navigation and the way humans expect to be directed. “In 300 feet, turn left” is far less clear than something like “Turn left immediately after the gas station.” If cameras could enable Apple Maps to provide more human-like directions, that would already be a significant benefit.

But I was far more intrigued by a second possibility.

The device could give the wearer a reminder based on something the camera sees.

For example, if I had put together a shopping list in the Notes app, it would be amazing if the AirPod cameras could see that I have walked into a grocery store and use that information to proactively open the list on my iPhone.

Perhaps I have an intended book purchase stored in a third-party book app and iOS could surface that reminder when it sees me approaching a bookstore.

Maybe I have oil change in my reminders and AirPods could speak up when they see me a service center at the side of the road while I’m driving. For bonus points, only do so if it can see from my calendar that I have time for the stop.

I’m sure we could all think of many more examples of just how useful this type of reminder feature could be, and speaking personally, this could definitely be the feature which sees me sacrifice some level of audio quality in order to get the benefits.

However, given the rollout of Apple Intelligence features to date, I would also be extremely skeptical about how realistic these ideas might be. I could imagine a few token features to launch the idea, but would frankly be astonished surprised to see a comprehensive set of reminder features driven by visual intelligence within the next year or two.

What’s your view? Are you excited by the possibilities, or do you share my skepticism? Please let us know your thoughts in the comments.

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