Apple may be considering equipping future HomePod smart speakers with cameras — but not for the reasons you may initially think.
Patent application 1619991 has been granted by the United States Patent Office, and describes a next-gen HomePod-like product that controls smart home devices and accepts voice command input, presumably to the Siri assistant. However, rather than the camera being used for video calling over FaceTime or for in-the-home security purposes, it’s instead being proposed as a Face ID system to better recognize which individual in a room is making a request of the HomePod — as well as what connected devices require the speaker’s attention.
Alongside voice recognition, the patent describes how a user could look at the speaker, and then make a more generalized voice command like “turn on that light”, with the camera being able to identify which light needs activating by following a user’s gaze. This would help solve a pain point of smart home control, where it’s often necessary to remember a device’s exact name to get a voice assistant to make it do what you want. The system is also intended to be smart enough to recognize what a user could be looking at, should they be turned away from the camera.
Making the smart home simpler
It’s not the only trick in the patent’s arsenal. Face ID could pair with voice recognition to better understand which specific user is making the request, and respond with personalized names — and could presumably begin to learn which requests that user regularly makes and anticipate them.
For this to work, Face ID would have to advance quite significantly. Currently, Face ID is limited to a close-range depth-sensing ability, making it best suited to mobile devices like the best iPhones or iPad Pro devices. The patent states that a user would still need to set up Face ID on a personal device before transferring the recognition data to the speaker, likely to avoid privacy concerns for others passing through the vicinity of the camera’s range.
The patent also goes on to describe how a light array on the HomePod could be used to communicate whether or not a command could be understood, as well as how auxiliary devices like an Apple Watch Series 9 could get involved with smart home controls — specifically suggesting using long presses on an Apple Watch screen to change the brightness of HomeKit lightbulbs.
It’s an intriguing use of cameras in a smart speaker, one that would go beyond what’s been tried before from the likes of Amazon’s Echo lineup or Google Home smart displays. And while this patent doesn’t explicitly mention the involvement of a screen for video calls and security, it’s hard to imagine Apple putting this together for a potential product without including those features too. Given the number of rumors surrounding a HomePod with a screen being in the works, this would all tie nicely together.
However, as with all patent applications, this isn’t necessarily an indication of a product in active development. Instead, see it as Apple looking to protect some very promising ideas for the future — stuff we’d love to see in any eventual HomePod 3.
