this post was submitted on 20 Aug 2026
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New AirPods leak reveals built-in cameras and Visual Intelligence (www.dexerto.com)
submitted 3 days ago by velma@sh.itjust.works to c/technology@lemmy.world
88 comments fedilink hide all child comments
 

Rather than functioning as conventional cameras, the sensors are expected to feed information into Visual Intelligence. This would allow Siri to answer questions about what is around the wearer or save information they encounter throughout the day.

This is not the first report suggesting Apple is developing AirPods with cameras. Bloomberg’s Mark Gurman previously claimed the earbuds would collect “visual information in low resolution,” effectively acting as eyes for Apple’s AI features.

Potential uses could include asking Siri questions about nearby objects, saving information without taking out your iPhone, or receiving more detailed turn-by-turn directions based on the wearer’s surroundings.

The AirPods shown in the video resemble a slightly thicker version of the AirPods Pro 3, with longer stems seemingly providing room for the additional hardware.

Apple has not officially announced the device, so its final name, price, features, and launch date remain unknown. However, previous reports suggest the AirPods could arrive as early as September alongside Apple’s next generation of iPhones.

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[–] Septimaeus@infosec.pub 7 points 3 days ago (2 children)

Maybe BS, but I’d wager only partly true, because the kind of sensors needed for basic local environment awareness aren’t “cameras” in the usual sense even if the have an array of photoreceptors like a camera uses. It might be better described as a higher resolution version of the IR light detectors currently used.

Regardless, given a few undeniable technical realities, like ridiculously tiny batteries and the bandwidth requirements of video vs available BT throughput, there is 0% chance of these earbuds becoming pervglasses-like surveillance wear.

Reactionaries and sourgrapists don’t give a rats ass about truth, however, so prepare for sensationalist headlines no matter what.

[–] Zarobi@aussie.zone 3 points 2 days ago (1 children)

It's high resolution enough to take notes about your environment and answer questions with Apple intelligence. If it's as restricted by Bluetooth bandwidth, battery, etc as you claim, it would be a useless feature. It doesn't need to record 24/7, just take a snapshot every 5 minutes and if something interesting is happening maybe then start recording

[–] Septimaeus@infosec.pub 2 points 2 days ago

Individual photos could be transferred. And most of their recent SOCs can do on-device image interpretation. That’s how their Photos app captions and labels pictures. It’d probably work OK for large objects even at low fidelity So I think that’s possible.

Still not really sure how they would capture video. At nearly any resolution it would heavily tax the grain of rice size battery, on top of the processing power needed for encoding a video stream, and that’s assuming their new chip includes P2P WiFi capability to solve the bandwidth issue.

What I expected they might try was passive spatial mesh construction using either SLAM or LiDAR to integrate with their spatial computing and accessibility or indoor navigation. But if all it’s doing is describing what can be captured in a photo, that sounds plausible.

[–] manualoverride@lemmy.world 7 points 3 days ago

That’s a really good point about the sort of image quality they could capture and transmit given the tiny battery… but if they sacrifice the battery life or NC development to add in some AI data gathering it’s a step too far for me.