Apple's AirPods could offer more than just sound, with the personal audio accessories still anticipated to gain cameras at some point in the future, and there's patent filings to prove it.
Apple's work to increase the utility of its wearable devices could lead in a slightly offbeat direction for one product. The AirPods, typically an audio-based item, could one day house cameras to capture images of the local environment.
In a Bloomberg newsletter on Sunday, a discussion of smart glasses includes references to other Apple products could be working on. The short list includes something like Meta's Ray-Ban glasses, but also "camera-equipped AirPods."
The report doesn't go into any detail about the supposed AirPods, but a lot of previous reporting offers a compelling narrative for the rumored hardware.
The concept of cameras in AirPods have been broached before by the publication. The most recent claim was on December 22, with cameras in the AirPods said to include IR-sensing versions.