Apple might want to put a camera or two on your next Apple Watch, ostensibly to assist its AI in interpreting your environment and, perhaps, acting on your behalf: “There’s a hill up ahead! You might want to accelerate your running pace, but watch out for that puddle; it might be a pothole!”
That sounds useful, but do we need a smartwatch to do a job best left to our eyes? You’ll see that hill, you’ll take note of the puddle, and subconsciously plan a route around it. Why would you need a camera on your wrist?
Forgive me if I am a bit against the whole concept of a wearable camera. I think that unless you’re a police officer who has to record all their interactions with the public (see The Rookie for details), a chest-bound camera is a bad idea. I think most Humane AI Pin wearers (and Humane AI) quickly discovered this.
Cameras on glasses aren’t as bad, perhaps because they’re so close to your eyes where you are looking at and making mental notes about what you see anyway. There are privacy concerns though, and when I’ve worn Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, I’ve had a few people ask if I’m recording them. There’s a little light on the frame that tells them as much, but I get the concern. No one wants to be recorded or have their picture taken without their explicit permission.
Never a good idea
We’ve seen cameras on smartwatches before. Back in 2013, Samsung unveiled the beefy Samsung Galaxy Gear, which I wore and reviewed. Samsung’s idea for an on-wrist camera was, shall I say, unusual.
Instead of integrating the camera into the smart watch’s body, Samsung stuffed it into the wristband. This was one bad idea on top of another. By placing the camera on the wristband, it forced you to position your wrist just right to capture a photo, using the smartwatch display as a viewfinder. Moreover, there was concern about damaging the wristband, which could lead to ruining the 2MP camera. It took, by the way, just passable photos.
Apple’s apparent idea for a smartwatch camera is less about capturing a decent photo and more about ambient awareness. Information that one or more cameras can glean about your environment could inform Apple Intelligence – assuming Apple Intelligence is, by then, what Apple’s been promising all along.
Powerful AI works best with data, both training to build the models and real time for analysis by those same models. Our best iPhones and best smartwatches are full of sensors that tell these devices where they are, where they’re going, how fast they’re moving, and if you’ve taken a fall or been in a car crash while carrying or wearing them. The watch has no camera, and your phone does not use its camera to build a data picture unless you ask it to.
Currently, you can squeeze your Camera Control button on the iPhone 16 and enable Visual Intelligence. This lets you take a picture and ask ChatGPT or Google Search to analyze it.
An eye on your wrist
A camera on your smartwatch, though, might always be on and trying, even as you pump your arms during a brisk run, to tell you about what’s around and in front of you.
It might be looking at the people running toward you, and could possibly identify people on the fly, assuming it can get a clear enough shot. The watch could then connect to your phone or AirPods and identify people: “That’s Bob Smith. According to his LinkedIn, he works in real estate.” I’m not sure how those other people would feel about that, though.
I get that some of this sounds very cool and futuristic, but are we really meant to know that much about everything around us? Wouldn’t it be better to explore what we want to with our eyes and ignore the rest? Exactly how much information can a human take?
It needs this but…
There are no guarantees that this will happen. It’s just a rumor from Bloomberg News, but it makes sense.
It’s high time for Apple to do the first truly significant Apple Watch redesign in a decade. Apple also needs some exciting new technology to remind people it can still innovate. Plus, more hardware sensors open the door to more powerful Apple Intelligence, and with all the recent missteps in that space, Apple is in dire need of an AI win.
I’m fine with all of that, as long as it does not involve putting cameras on my Apple Watch.
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lance.ulanoff@futurenet.com (Lance Ulanoff)
