Your next Apple Watch may be fitted with a camera. Apple have filed a patent application simply titled “Watch having a camera”, which outlines a few methods the company are looking into for fitting their smart watch with a camera sensor.
In the application, which was filed before the United States Patent and Trademark Office (USPTO), Apple seem to be leaning towards the idea of a detachable camera module. While they show one design that has a camera fitted to the crown of the body, which makes sense for those wanting to literally point and shoot, fitting a camera on an already tiny watch body is a bit of an engineering nightmare.
Other methods include a detachable camera that fits to the rear panel, while another shows an expanding strap that features an attachment for a camera module.
While a camera fitted to a smart watch does sound convenient, the new technology is not without security risks. Due to the hidden nature of a smartwatch, it would not be hard for someone to hide that they were recording you. Devices with built in cameras, such as Ray-Ban Stories smart glasses from Facebook, have also faced backlash for the same reason.
That being said, even a low pixel camera could prove to be incredibly convenient as more and more people adopt smartwatches. The feature would not only make photo taking easy, but would also bolster the abilities of other programs such as Apple’s fall detection. An implemented camera could make the fall detection feature more accurate.
Despite the patent, Meta are already at looking at making their own camera fitted Facebook Smart Watch, a leaked render of which shows the camera fitted in a notch on the display.