Exclusive | Apple’s Working on a Totally New, Automated HomeKit Experience with Enhanced Ultra Wideband Chips Expected to Be Built Into HomePods, Apple TVs, and Much More
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Today, we’ll be talking about probably the most exciting technology I’ve heard about in a while. But first, for context, we already know the U1 chip works incredibly well – using AirTags with the U1 chip, combined with all my Apple products, I can easily find my items in less than a minute, even if I’m not near them. Having the ability to locate them so quickly is already impressive – but this technology has tremendous potential; Apple engineers know it, and that’s why they are working on ways to make it even better.
Today, I want to tell you about something the company is apparently working on. And trust me, you’ll be as excited about it as I am once you finish reading this article. It’s a new chip, similar to the U1 but with new and improved features, and is being tested within Apple Park. It is still very early in development, so I can’t give you many specific details about it, although I can tell you what the company aims to do with it.
Combined with the new chip, Apple seeks to create a totally new experience with HomeKit. It is expected that this chip will offer such precision that it will be able to do things such as turning your desk lamp on when it detects you are sitting in front of it. In addition, it will be possible to automatically and manually create “areas” and perform specific tasks once you get into them.
Imagine you arrive home and go to the kitchen with your iPhone in your pocket; you’ll be able to create an “area” there, so every time you repeat that same action, your kitchen light turns on. It would also work the other way around. If you leave that area, the light will simply turn off.
Defining an area will be the main feature, and I am hearing that the next generation of the U1 chip will be able to do that down to the inch.
The idea is to create a whole ecosystem. The company would include this new chip in basically all Apple products, especially those at home like an Apple TV or a HomePod. They won’t be moving a lot, and it will be easier to calculate distances, these “areas,” and so on. Then, once someone with an Apple Watch or an iPhone enters that area, the ecosystem will detect it, as I said, down to the inch and perform any task that’s programmed.
There would be different actions for different people. Imagine you want the TV to turn on when you walk into the living room, but your brother doesn’t want it on when he walks in; you can program that, so it only happens when your phone enters the zone. It can also vary depending on what time is it when the action is performed. For example, you could program this, so your desk light turns on when you sit in front of it, but only after 6 pm.
There are many more things Apple is working on, and I think this can indeed be a revolutionary technology if developed correctly. Home automatization is something that’s usually left behind, and this is because it isn’t genuinely automatic yet. People have to take their phones out and perform a task inside the Home app to do something that involves their HomeKit compatible accessories. However, with this new technology, it will indeed be a fully automated experience, and I’m sure more and more people will see the benefits.
Another thing that will make people opt for these new smart home objects like lamps or thermostats is their evolving prices. These things are getting less expensive every day, to the point that I expect them to soon cost about the same as standard accessories do. And people could actually save some money. Let’s use the example of the thermostat. A technology that could allow people to raise the temperature of a particular room only while someone is inside and turning it off once that person leaves the room is way better than doing it yourself. Not only is it more comfortable, but also safer, since you could forget about turning off the heating, and this technology would help by doing it automatically.
Another feature Apple is apparently working on that would benefit from this technology is finding things more effortlessly than ever. Imagine you lost your keys and have a regular AirTag attached to them. You’d make the AirTag emit some sound and then try to find it using “Precision Finding,” which will show you the distance to your AirTag and the direction to head in. This is pretty effective, I’ve used this feature a lot of times, and it works just fine. However, I noticed that sometimes, it is not that easy to locate it once you are less than a meter away from your lost object, especially if it is inside a drawer or behind something. And this is where the new technology makes sense..
Apparently, Apple wants this new chip to take advantage of an iPhone with a LiDAR sensor to give the user a 3D object’s location. Let’s say you lost your wallet, and you realize it’s somewhere in your room because it has an AirTag inside. You want to find it quickly, so you open the Find My app and point the camera to your room. Thanks to this new technology, your iPhone will use other devices such as a HomePod or an Apple TV that have this new chip to determine the object’s exact position. Once it does that, it will use the LiDAR sensor to scan your room and show you through the screen where exactly is your lost object. Down to the inch.
As I told you before, this is still very early in development. I wouldn’t expect Apple to announce it anytime soon; there is a lot of work to do with this before people get to see it.
I think this technology will be revolutionary if it continues to be developed and Apple doesn’t stop working on it. Don’t expect this to be announced before the 2023 Worldwide Developers Conference, although that’s a very optimistic date, and the company is known for pushing back releases.
Let me know in the comments below what you think about this technology and if you are as excited as I am about it. I hope you found this article helpful. As always, have a nice day!
[The information provided in this article has NOT been confirmed by Apple and may be speculation. Provided details may not be factual. Take all rumors, tech or otherwise, with a grain of salt.]
