The HomePod is the smart speaker from the Big Apple that saw the light of day in June 2017. More than three years later, Apple introduced us to its little brother: the HomePod Mini. This powerful speaker retains all the benefits of the original HomePod in a small footprint. Nevertheless, innovation at the hardware level has to advance if Apple wants to perpetuate user support for such a product. The latest patent by Apple shows what they have called 'Control by gaze', a camera-mediated control system that could be included in the next generation of Apple's smart speaker.
Controlling HomePod with your gaze may soon be possible
This patent refers to the control of electronic devices. In some examples, the electronic device uses gaze information to activate a digital assistant. […] Electronics use information from the gaze to identify an external device on which to act. […] The electronic device provides an indication that distinguishes between different speakers.
This is the description used by Apple to define its new patent 'Device control using gaze information ' which was registered on December 8 in the United States Patent and Trademark Office. This new patent hints at what the future of Apple's HomePod could be. The integration of a camera on smart speaker it would allow the operating system to incorporate new variables to improve the handling of the product together with Siri.
Three clear assumptions of what this technology would entail are shown throughout the extensive explanation of the patent. In the first place, it would allow detect who is speaking and allow access to information or not. That is, a Face ID camouflaged in a smart speaker that would give you access to it or not. Second, the identification of products with which to interact: automatic detection of HomeKit-compatible products, for example, using ARKit technology.
And finally, the detection of the person who is speaking in case there are several people and requests are made like: 'Hey Siri turn this light on'. In this case, the user would be pointing or looking at the product in question that would be connected to the system through HomeKit. In this case, the detection of the user, the detection of the lamp and the performance of the action would be mixed finally.