A camera in an Apple Watch could offer some AI benefits
A future Apple Watch could include cameras for monitoring the world, expanding Apple’s AI and Visual Intelligence efforts out from the iPhone and onto the wrist.
Apple’s introduction of Visual Intelligence offers a quick way for users to perform searches on physical objects and signs. However, while the AI-based feature is part of Apple Intelligence on an iPhone, it could eventually see an expansion into other areas.
According to Mark Gurman in a Bloomberg newsletter on Sunday, Apple’s plan for Visual Intelligence is to make it a core feature of future hardware releases. This includes shifting away from using external AI models from OpenAI and Google to power the function, in favor of one of its own creation.
However, Apple also wants to use it on other hardware that doesn’t typically have an onboard camera. This has already been proposed by the rumored development of AirPods with built-in cameras, but this concept can apparently spread over to the Apple Watch.
Gurman writes that Apple is considering adding cameras to the standard and Ultra models of Apple Watch. Both versions could have a front-facing lens inside the display, while the Ultra may have a lens on the side, near the crown and button.
The idea of the effort is to use the system so that AI can see the outside world, which can be used to deliver detailed information that can enhance queries. This is somewhat similar in concept to how the AirPods cameras could be employed.
As for when a camera-equipped Apple Watch could arrive, Gurman proposes that it’s something Apple could accomplish by 2027.
Wrist snapper
The idea of a camera inside an Apple Watch has been floated multiple times in the past. Aside from rumors and speculation, it’s actually cropped up in Apple’s own patents and applications.
Most recently, it was mentioned in one concept for a “Wearable Electronic Device” that looks like a smartwatch with a flip-up display. The filing mentions its use for making and receiving video calls, and the use of both exterior and interior cameras.
Back in 2023, an application for “Wearable Electronic Device Having A Digital Camera Assembly,” consisting of a protrusion along a band to see the user. That camera, the filing adds, could be used for things like biometric monitoring, such as a user’s heart rate, or Face ID, among other typical video applications.
A December 2020 filing offered a concept where the camera and flash are externally visible on an Apple Watch only when needed, and hidden when not in use. There’s also been the proposal of hiding it in the Digital Crown or on the end of a watch band strap.
Evidently, Apple has considered the prospect of adding a camera to the Apple Watch for quite some time. It just hasn’t actually moved on to producing one of the concepts as an actual product.
