Every tech company seems to be flirting with wearable AI gadgets, but the way they’re taking shape is all over the map. Glasses are here with Meta and google soonwhile OpenAI’s hardware project with Jony Ive is still a mystery. Apple, meanwhile can also loosen glasses. Or maybe not.
A new report from The Information says so from Apple working on a small pin about the size of an AirTag which would have its own camera and work as a wearable AI. Why? Right now, Apple has no other place to put an outward-facing camera. Cameras are the key ingredient for any AI service that wants to not only respond to your voice, but also give you feedback about what you see in the room.
Would a pin be a stepping stone to glasses?
Cameras play a major role in the rise of AI glasses. It’s relatively easy to place a camera in glasses frames near your eyes and have it work with AI to recognize objects it sees and provide advice and information. A pin or a pendant offers AI the ability to ‘see’ the world without having to wear glasses. Many companies have done that already tried thisor still tryingto measure without cameras.
The way I see it, Apple’s collective wearable hardware ecosystem gives it an advantage over competing wearable AI contenders. Take AirPods for example.
Multiple reports have said that new AirPods Pro models are coming this year with infrared cameras who can recognize hand gestures. For normal AirPods use, that seems excessive. But for interaction with AI? Maybe it’s just right, especially if motion controls come along that can mimic what Meta does with his neural wristband. And combined with a camera pin, it might all function as a screen-less experience, so no smart glasses required.
I guess I’d just prefer a good pair of glasses that do all this, but that’s the thing: that’s not easy to do right now, and battery life on smart glasses is still usually less than a full day. However, Apple could be setting its sights on smart glasses with built-in screens as a sort of next step in the evolution of what they’ve already established. Vision Pro. Glasses may have to wait a little longer for that.
Meta’s Ray-Bans (top) sit on a Vision Pro (bottom). Apple still doesn’t have glasses, but it does have earbuds and watches and many options for gesture control.
How many Apple products will communicate with AI? And when?
In the coming years, AirPods with gestures will become possible Apple watches (which already supports cranes and wrist movements) and wearables such as camera-equipped pins could lay the foundation for glasses or as an accompaniment. The question is how useful they will actually be.
I’m as excited about future technology as anyone you meet, but I don’t want to wear an AI pin. I’ve done it before and I don’t like the idea of doing it again. Apple may need to collaborate with its rivals on AI to make its wearables attractive.
Apple and Google’s AI partnershipbuilt on Gemini, hints at the AI advances that could soon come to Apple’s products. This is according to a report by Mark Gurman at Bloomberg Siri is going to be rebuilt as a generative AI chatbot. Gemini can already do a lot of that with live and camera-assisted AI Google and Samsung will hire on a new wave of smart glasses this year. Apple could do the same and even incorporate that AI awareness into its Vision Pro headset.
When I see news about an AI Pin, I see it as just one piece of a hardware puzzle where AirPods and Watches – Apple accessories work together. Of course, a pin would still be something to carry around, but at least it would be cheaper than glasses and bypass the need to seek prescription support.
Either way, this reported pin shouldn’t appear here until 2027. Apple may show an early preview this year, just as they have done in the past for future products like Vision Pro, Apple Watch, and HomePod.
What I’m keeping an eye on is Apple’s entire planned AI evolution, which could finally happen after the disappointing launch of Apple Intelligence. I haven’t seen camera-enabled AI services really wow me on glasses yet, but the potential is clearly there. Apple seems ready to get into that game soon too, whether it’s on our faces, pinned to our shirts, or who knows where else. But then they have to figure out how to better design what exactly we would use this camera-assisted AI for.
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