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Apple Watches With Cameras Rumored, But FaceTime Unlikely

DHagan4755 said:
FaceTime would seem like an ideal app here. The other rumored feature sounds like it would be awkward to use, or is it me?
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I don't know that that would be practical.

Visual Intelligence just requires a sliver of visual data. It would be quite distorted, but the Watch, thanks to compass, accelerometer, gyroscope can figure out its orientation and recreate a low-resolution of the original image (as perceived by a human), which should be enough for a "Visual Intelligence" to find some information. For example, add location data (which the Watch also has), and the system should be able to ask itself "I'm at this place, and the user is looking in this direction; oh, that seems to be a hair salon; what's the name, when is it open, what are the reviews, has the user been here before?"

Whereas, for FaceTime, you'd still need to un-distort the image, but the result would be low-res. I'm guessing for a human face, it just isn't good enough. Think about how you hold a watch. Right now as I'm typing this, the display doesn't even fully face me. On top of that, it wiggles around a little due to finger movement. You'd have to correct the perspective, and you'd be working, as a result, with a low amount of image data. And probably not flattering image data.
 
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This AW visual search and AirPods infra-red camera rumors are both useless non-features..I'd appreciate an under-display Facetime camera, not an AI visual search that needs me to raise my arm and point at stuffs. How awkward.
 
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I'm guessing that this camera is actually an infrared element. This gybes with the rumor that Apple is exploring infrared detectors in future AirPods. Infrared light is a critical co-factor for our mitochondrial health -- our metabolic health. This was discussed in the 2019 science paper Melatonin and the Optics of the Human Body. The Photobiomodulation Database is a curated list of all science papers (currently 8528) that have been written on the topic.

Infrared-Before-After.jpeg


I'm hoping that Apple Health is expanding to monitoring IR radiation to make sure that we get plenty daily. They'll do nothing to promote the science -- until they have widgets that can monitor that science. That's frustrating!

One obvious source of infrared radiation is the sun. Another source is OG Edison bulbs and specialty LED lights that include red and near-infrared radiation. One place where humans get none is the International Space Station. For some reason, NASA has never experimented with adding infrared radiation to that environment. The lack of infrared may be a contributing factor to health issues that astronauts have after long missions. Note these before-after photos of Suni Williams, who just returned from the ISS.
 
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Apple can’t get to deliver Apple Intelligence in their current iPhones lineup, when they are “thinking” to get it into its watches.

It seems that Apple is not learning the lesson…
 
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DHagan4755 said:
FaceTime would seem like an ideal app here. The other rumored feature sounds like it would be awkward to use, or is it me?
Click to expand...
I don't think so. Talk about gorilla arm syndrome-you'd need to hold your arm up for a long time in an uncomfortable position to have a video call. But more realistically, whoever you were FaceTiming with would just see a very jittery and constantly shifting POV as you move your arm around--it would look like video from a found footage movie.
 
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fwmireault said:
I can’t imagine how quick the battery would go down with a FaceTime call on Apple Watch. Also, nobody wants to hold their arm in front of them for multiple minutes. I don’t think there is a realist use case for this feature
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Everything in this rumor is just plain silly. It says it’s not for Facetime, and I agree with you that using a watch for that would be far more awkward in practice than “Dick Tracy” ever let on. But even the Visual Intelligence use case described is odd. You wouldn’t be extending your arm in front of you because you would likely want feedback that you are “aiming it” in the right direction, which means you need to see the watch face while aiming. The most comfortable way would likely be to stand facing roughly 90 degrees away from your target, with your target on your right, then bring up your watch the normal way you would to look at it to see time, a notification, etc. If you are walking and your target happens to be on your left side, you’d do a 180 to identify.

It all seems like overkill since I am there and I can see the name of the business, monument, place, etc. I can just ask Siri to . . . . Oh, wait . . . . 🤣
 
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SW3029 said:
more realistically, whoever you were FaceTiming with would just see a very jittery and constantly shifting POV as you move your arm around--it would look like video from a found footage movie.
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If they ship that at all, which I think is years away, I think they’d do an automatic perspective correction. A bit like a mix of Desk View and Center Stage.

But… I don’t think the sensor quality is anywhere close.
 
I my humble opinion apple should leave those features to the iPhone with it's big screen and save room for health sensors, I really come to a conclusion (like Apple off course) that the Apple Watch and smart watch in general purpose is to be a sports monitoring and a health machine learning computer that analyze data all day and "pops" alerts god forbidden to the user, like a "guardian" on the users wrist, the true purpose of the product.
 
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I've toyed around with using my AW Ultra as my primary phone before getting my 13 mini. One of the things I missed most was being able to use it in the car. Even if I can’t use CarPlay from my Apple Watch, I’d at least like to be able to connect it through Bluetooth to my car. I’d much rather see this come to a future Apple Watch.

A camera could be a nice addition if I can use it for more than just AI stuff. I don’t expect to take perfect photos with a watch, but if my child or pet does something cute or whatever else and I don’t have my phone on me, it would be nice to capture that moment.
 
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It is amazing to me that the only thing Silicon Valley can imagine one would wish to do with a camera is get hours, reviews, and menus of restaurants as someone randomly wonders down a street. Yet this is ALWAYS listed as THE pervasive use case for putting a camera in a watch.

It must be. a San Francisco thing. I can quite honestly say I have never once wanted anything of the sort. Mostly because:
  1. If the sign is lit and the door unlocked -- they are open
  2. "Reviews" are seldom if ever insightful. Yes I read them occasionally. I always wish I had those 3 minutes of my life back. They are either posted by friends of the owner or people that had a uniquely horrible experience: often because they are uniquely horrible people.
  3. Almost without exception every restaurant I have "walked up to" in an area where pedestrians do such things, the menu is prominently displayed in the window. It is complete with current prices, daily specials, and sometimes even samples. Non-chain non-mega cap restaurants do not have a "web department" to curate their internet presence. And if you don't know the menu at Long Horn or Burger King... a smart phone is not the life hack solution you need.
Combine with the fact some weird contortion is going to be required to point the camera. Really all I can think of is a cross chested Romulan salute. Even then we're going to need advanced AI because the picture will be crooked, out of frame, and probably poorly lit. I can't wait until so idiot eager for victim points digs up that a fringe cult from decades or centuries ago used that to self identify its members.

Back at the very dawn of the Android age I did have a watch with a camera in it. It was niche technology and nothing else in that Android dead end fork worked at all! This was when I learned the hazards of Kickstarter, but that is another story. The camera did work after a fashion. It was on the side in a bump and took actual pictures. But I cannot imagine consumers today being satisfied with what could be squeezed into such an apparatus.


No. The only obvious use for a camera in a watch face is FaceTime.
 
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Apple assumes the software will work well enough to make this a compelling feature. But they have years of hard work ahead of them to build any trust at all in anything remotely to do with Siri or Apple Intelligence.
 
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The Apple Watch should not have a camera for multiple reasons.:

1) this would require keeping your arm up which is bery tiring. The Apple Watch also in general isn't made for long calls because of that reason, using AirPods is another story. And using the camera would require keeping your wrist up of course.

2) battery life as mentioned. The Apple Watch has no room for such a useless feature. Even if the camera is 2x2mm, it's too much.
 
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bhirt37 said:
How terrible. Who is coming up with there terrible ideas? Please let this be an early april fools joke. I foresee a future where I don't buy any new apple products for years until the Apple Unintellegnce passes. The last thing I want is a camera in my watch and earbuds.
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Apple will normally supply otherwise strange hardware decisions with a compelling reason for their existence.

You only need to look back at the original iPhone thread to see how these things change so much
 
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