Neil Hughes
Before the first-generation HomePod can even make its way into the wild, rumors are already cropping up about a future update to the premium speaker, as the president of supplier Inventec made comments about future smart speakers with facial recognition capabilities.
While the comments by Inventec President David Ho were not specifically about Apple, they did fuel speculation that his comments could be regarding a future update to the HomePod with Face ID technology. The speculation was highlighted by Nikkei.
"We see trends that engineers are designing smart speakers that will not only come with voice recognition but also incorporate features such as facial and image recognition," Ho said. "Such AI-related features are set to make people's lives more convenient and to make the product easier to use."
If a HomePod with Face ID is in fact in the works, it's unlikely to arrive anytime soon. Apple hasn't even released the first hardware yet — it's scheduled to arrive in December.
The HomePod hardware was unveiled at Apple's annual Worldwide Developers Conference in June. It will be priced at $349.
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20 Comments
I was one of the people who criticized HomePod for not being innovative enough.
Something I wanted to see was light projection for DJing, parties etc. I wanted to see Live photo effects (Think HomePod projecting a masquerade/masks on people’s faces) With FaceID this is possible.
or maybe that’s too futuristic at this point.
It's like patent spam. method for adding some new thing to old thing for reasons.
Hopefully by the time they add this Face ID will work for multiple users. As a shared device this would be really important.
Just not seeing the need for facial recognition on a device that will likely sit on a shelf and not be meant for regular and close-proximity interaction with users. That's what the iPhone and iPad are for and the HomePod will connect to these devices already, so what's the need or use-case for FaceID on a home speaker?