Apple is exploring the idea of adding cameras and visual intelligence features to its smartwatches, writes well-known insider Mark Gurman in Bloomberg.
As with the upcoming AirPods, this will help the watch "see" the world around it and use artificial intelligence to respond to various user requests. These models are probably far from release, but they are on the roadmap.
Cameras can be added to both the standard Apple Watch and the Ultra models.
- The current idea is to build the camera into the display of the standard version, as they did with the front camera on the iPhone.
- For the Ultra model, a different approach has been taken, with the camera lens placed on the side of the watch next to the crown and button.
Apple is probably considering this approach because the Ultra models are thicker. So Ultra users will be able to just point their wrist and scan something. But Series users will have to turn their wrists.
"Of course, Apple will need to seriously upgrade its AI in order to make these new integrations more useful. But that’s something it may be able to pull off by 2027, when both the camera-equipped AirPods and Apple Watches are expected to roll out," Gurman writes.
In other Apple Watch news, the company continues to face challenges in testing its long-planned blood pressure tracking feature. And the next Ultra model will get support for satellite notifications, as well as a type of 5G wireless service known as RedCap. As part of those changes, it will get a new modem chip from MediaTek Inc.
