Qualcomm puts cameras in earbuds, adds AI to headphones

A camera in your ear may sound creepy at first, but it could help AI understand what’s happening around you. The concept, showcased by audio brand Cleer at a Qualcomm event in Maui, Hawaii on Thursday (India Time), highlights the next big thing in tech: earbuds with built-in cameras.

Qualcomm says the cameras would map the wearer’s surroundings, allowing the AI to respond to or take action on related queries. In other words, the cameras act as sensors that understand the user’s surroundings, enabling multimodal AI to process voice and visual information together. They aren’t meant for snapping photos or recording videos. Potential use cases for camera-equipped earbuds include real-time translation, context-aware AI assistants, and more personalised listening experiences.

Apple is also reportedly working on camera-equipped AirPods, something Qualcomm and Cleer appear to be exploring with this concept. Cleer’s earbuds put a camera and AI front and center, while Qualcomm says the system runs on its Snapdragon Sound platform. For now, neither company has said whether the product will eventually go on sale, but the concept offers a glimpse at where earbuds could be headed next.

The camera-enabled earbuds support Qualcomm’s latest Snapdragon Sound Elite Gen 2 chip, which was introduced on the second day of the Snapdragon Summit. The audio chip brings new features to audio wearables, or “hearables,” as they are commonly called. Designed for earbuds, headphones, and even audio glasses, the new chip aims to redefine personal audio by making these devices ready for the agentic AI era.

The new Sound Elite chip is 30 per cent smaller, twice as powerful for AI, and up to 40 per cent more power efficient than its predecessor, an upgrade that could make future audio devices smaller, smarter, and longer-lasting.

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The AI-assisted future of audio isn’t limited to earbuds; it is also changing how audio glasses work. Qualcomm says the idea isn’t to put a chatbot in your ear, but to create new class of devices that understand what’s happening around you. (Image credit: Anuj Bhatia/Indian Express)

The big features of the Sound Elite Gen 2 is not the sound, but connectivity. The chip features an integrated, low-power Wi-Fi 6E radio that allows wearables to communicate directly with cloud services, bypassing the smartphone.

Also read | ‘A phone is unique to you, it’s not going anywhere’: Qualcomm CEO’s big bet on agentic AI as company unveils new mobile chips

Qualcomm is also building its own ecosystem around this, called Snapdragon Sound Apps and Agents, which includes assistants, translation, and transcription. The chip adds aptX Lossless for higher-quality audio, XPAN for longer-range connectivity, and AI-powered improvements to noise cancellation, speech capture, and voice clarity.

Qualcomm sees hearables as a new emerging audio category that bring the personal AI to consumers. It’s a part of an always-connected network of devices, which includes phones, headphones, glasses, cars and home tech, that understand context, allowing AI agents to better understand users and act on their behalf.

The author attended the Qualcomm Summit in Hawaii on the invite of the company.