- It looks like these cameras are infrared and intended to see gestures from the wearer. There are some more details in the linked article:
https://www.macrumors.com/2024/06/30/new-airpods-to-feature-...
> The IR cameras can detect environmental image changes, facilitating a broader range of gestures to improve user interaction. For example, if a user watches a video using Apple Vision Pro and the new AirPods, and turns their head to look in a specific direction, the sound source in that direction can be "emphasized to enhance the spatial audio/computing experience."
I wonder if the signal could be integrated into AR glasses or headset to provide a wider FOV to the wearer.
- Remember the fuss people made about the Google Glass?
Turns out that people become okay with cameras every few inches observing every action as long as you say "It's for gestures.", even though the data stream will inevitably make it back to corpo for training ( and voyeurism[0] by the other parties that'll be in the room).
Same excuse for the VR headsets. "Oh, it has a red LED that fires when recording!" , meanwhile the thing has 30 other IR cams in non-stop loops consuming the environment at power-on til death.
[0]: https://www.reuters.com/article/world/uk/nsa-staff-used-spy-...
by crazygringo
1 subcomments
- I wonder what this would do to battery life -- continuously-on IR cameras are going to be a significant power draw. And then there's the question of whether the video processing is done on the earbuds, or how much Bluetooth bandwidth is used sending the video stream to your phone for processing.
Using this to detect gestures does seem very cool, however. Seems like a fascinating engineering challenge.
by SunshineTheCat
6 subcomments
- I just want a feature that helps me find the one that runs away after I fall asleep with them in >:(
by Someone1234
2 subcomments
- People commonly continue to wear their AirPods in the changing rooms, because why not? Keep the tunes/podcast/etc going while you get ready/even shower.
If they add cameras to them, regardless of the implementation, I'm pretty sure that not only is against every gym-policy, but may be an actual criminal offense in certain states.
So I guess what I am saying is: This could be an anti-feature for certain people, or get people into trouble who continue to do a preexisting habit.
- reminds me when google introduced radar for their pixel phones called project soli. https://research.google/blog/soli-radar-based-perception-and.... i have a feeling that these will be as successful. its a solution in search of a problem in my eye
by KaiserPro
1 subcomments
- Depending on where the cameras are placed, they can be used to work out the pose (ie what position) the upper body is in.
Meta showed that it was possible to do that from cameras mounted on glasses.
However, the power required to do that is quite high (30-60mw to detect, more to do the pose extractions)
So I suspect its just hand recognition.
- Can't we get proper noise cancellation first before they worry about gesture control…
by rbbydotdev
0 subcomment
- How does this work out for 'observers' who are getting their windows broken, ripped out of cars?
- Are we going to have to take our airpods off when we go in the bathroom now?
Seems like a negative tradeoff.
by testfrequency
1 subcomments
- So in Japan, will the audio play on the outside of the headphone?
by nothercastle
1 subcomments
- So you want to get AirPods banned everywhere… genius
- It is interesting to see camera-in-airpods as a rumor instead of wireless-radio-as-camera [0] to detect similar. Maybe it is less power/volume intensive to add very limited cameras instead of upping the processing power to run inference on the radio signals?
I suppose that the "camera" could be as simple as an optical flow sensor [1] commonly used on mice and quad-copters and placed behind the black plastic so there would not be a visible lens [2].
0. https://web.ece.ucsb.edu/~ymostofi/WiFiReadingThroughWall
1. https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/10164626
2. https://www.schneier.com/blog/archives/2012/07/camera-transp...
- Can we get a bloody better sound driver, protection from ANC feedback shriek, one or two physical buttons (or at least a raised haptic buttons, not just a touch sensitive stem area), and battery level on the case?
We don't want no fucking infra cameras for "better hand gestures and enhanced spatial audio experience".
- There was an old video about the new app for your BlackBerry that would show you what's on the other side of your BlackBerry. At the time we believed this to be a joke, rather than a product development brief.
by alsetmusic
2 subcomments
- [flagged]
by HumblyTossed
2 subcomments
- Is it possible for tech to "jump the shark"?
- I suspect most devices will have cameras and mics on them and will mesh connect as a collective system. OpenAI is most likely working on a suite of devices that would fit this "regalia" of sorts.
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