Earlier this year, Apple acquired a secretive startup: Q.ai, for over 2 billion dollars. It’s the companies second largest acquisition to date, and it leaves you wondering: what’s the end game here?
While smart glasses seem like an obvious play, there’s another Apple product in the pipeline that also seems quite fitting for this new technology.
For the longest time, we’ve heard that Apple will be developing a new version of AirPods Pro 3 with IR cameras. It hasn’t necessarily been super clear why. Some reports point to it being for Visual Intelligence, but that’s never made loads of sense to me, given the fact that the camera positioning wouldn’t be super ideal. Maybe this feature will still debut, but I don’t believe this’ll be the primary function.
Q.ai specialized in one thing: analyzing facial micro-movements and patterns to determine what you’re saying, without any audible speech required.
This tech makes loads of sense for smart glasses, where there’s no real screen to interact with. That said, I think iPhone, iPad, and Mac users would love to get in on this too – and AirPods Pro 3 with IR cameras could be the path to that.
AirPods Pro with silent speech
AirPods already have some tech to help with this technology, including an accelerometer, skin detect sensors, and the heart rate monitor. All of these, plus the upcoming infrared cameras – could all play together into a future generation of AirPods that allow you to speak silently to your existing Apple devices.
All of the tech will be there, and it’ll just be a matter of Apple getting the software right. One way or another, I can’t help but feel excited about a world where we can talk to smart assistants without needing to type or speak loudly.
Right now, rumors suggest that the new AirPods Pro variant with IR cameras will debut by the end of the year.
Does this silent speech tech excite you? Will you be buying a new pair of AirPods Pro 3 with IR? Let us know in the comments.
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