The Humane AI Pin Launches Its Campaign to Replace Phones

https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2023-11-09/the-humane-ai-pin-launches-its-campaign-to-replaces-phones

by aryanvdesh • 3 years ago

62 184 3 years ago

world2vec• 3 years ago

So the AI Pin comes with its own phone number? Couldn't it be paired to my current eSIM? I don't need a second phone number... In any case, 700USD plus 24USD monthly subscription is a bit too much IMO.

peanuty13• 3 years ago

I could stomach $700 but not a $24/mo subscription.

xaellison• 3 years ago

For those who don't want to climb the expensive paywall: https://hu.ma.ne/

outside12343• 3 years ago

This. This is the best explanation.

ZeroSync• 3 years ago

Launch Video:

https://vimeo.com/882968794

A lot of the interactions seem to take longer vs me just taking my phone out and quickly doing what I need to do. Its compelling given this is a v1 of the product so it will only get better from here but not completely sold on it just yet.

drcongo• 3 years ago

I can't tell whether the abysmal video is what's making me hate it or the device itself.

zwieback• 3 years ago

Kind of cool, maybe, but oh my god - the awkward video is such a turn off. Hire some actors!

civilitty2• 3 years ago

But then the cofounders wouldn't get the full ego-stroking Silicon Valley Enterpreneur Experience™ they crave!

outside12343• 3 years ago

The whole goal of doing a startup like this as ex-Apple people is the narcissistic "next Steve Jobs" audition they are implicitly doing.

I'm sure Steve Jobs rolled over in his grave when they lead with product specs over "why buy this."

exitb• 3 years ago

Not that it matters either way, but I hate the recent Apple style of presentation with everyone being overly happy, hand-wavy and eerily excited about mundane features. This at least felt different and somewhat more honest.

msftie• 3 years ago

They ask it where the next eclipse is, and where best to watch it. They got the date right, but the suggested locations of Timor and Australia are not in the eclipse path. https://www.timeanddate.com/eclipse/solar/2024-april-8

nmd• 3 years ago

That also doesn't look like enough almonds for 15 grams worth of protein. 10 almonds have approx 3g of protein, requiring 50 almonds for 15 grams of protein, I don't think there's that many in the video.

Makes you wonder about the veracity of the AI (or the accuracy of the demo). Looks like a cool product either way.

notatoad• 3 years ago

so it's like a phone, but there's no apps or functionality other than what's built into the base OS, and there's no screen or input controls other than voice and gesture, it only plays music from Tidal, and only connects to t-mobile, and looks to everybody around me like i'm always wearing a camera pointed at them?

pass

cpeterso• 3 years ago

Achieves “all day battery life”… by replacing the battery multiple times a day?

“No wake word so it’s not always listening”… you just activate it with your voice?

basisword2• 3 years ago

Very Star Trek-esque. It seems a bit clunky but a good first version. I could imagine this being pretty powerful in 5-10 years when everything is integrated and the AI can do almost anything you ask it. Until it can 100% replace the phone (which seems to be their aim) it seems like an extra device that’s a bit unnecessary.

alex_young• 3 years ago

Can I read TFA on it or watch cat videos? Something tells me it’s not replacing phones anytime soon.

TechRemarker• 3 years ago

Says there is no wake word, so it's not always listening, but responds to your voice... aka it's always listening then no? And rather only processing info when it thinks it hears a wake word it would always be processing no? Having to hold up my hand to get a limited screen, all seems to be solving a problem that is already solved with a phone, and if one wants a smaller device use an Apple Watch with on device Siri and cellular. This seems far nitcher than even Google products that always appeared dead on arrival.

basisword2• 3 years ago

> Says there is no wake word, so it's not always listening, but responds to your voice... aka it's always listening then no?

You press it to activate it. That’s when it starts listening. It’s not always on.

gizajob15• 3 years ago

Strange given it's placed in a way where it's always there. Did seem like a bit of a contradiction when he said that. It's always listening but it's not always listening but it is.

WithinReason• 3 years ago

If people hated the Google Glasses recording them, won't they hate this too with the camera always facing forward?

gumballindie• 3 years ago

But it’s got what people crave. It's got ai.

peanuty13• 3 years ago

It has a trust light that indicates when it's recording.

jswny2• 3 years ago

It's got a hardware light that tells you its active, what more do you want? You have your phone out all the time and it's got a camera facing people too

jantissler2• 3 years ago

That's a funny comment. I don't wear my phone on my chest all the time. If I'm outside it's in my pocket. If I have it in my hand, the camera is facing down. There's no comparison to this consumer grade bodycam.

civilitty2• 3 years ago

When I first heard about the company I knew immediately it would be a Star Trek badge type device.

Google learned a similar lesson in 2018 after it launched Google Clips, a body-worn camera that used algorithms to automatically snap photos. Female users tended to end up with an abundance of cloud shots when they intended to record what was in front of them, because the device was not designed to account for bodies with breasts

This feels like it could have been a classic Silicon Valley scene but I'm going to give them the benefit of the doubt and assume that it was designed at Google's secret Castro office.

Tapping the Pin and then moving a palm into its field of view activates its laser, which projects images and text onto a user’s hand at a wavelength that produces a blueish-green tinge, a 720p-resolution system Humane calls a Laser Ink Display. Tilting the hand navigates between displayed options and a swatting gesture swipes to a different menu. Users “click” on an option by tapping their thumb and index finger together and close their hand briefly to return to a home screen.

Okay, that's freaking cool. Anyone here willing to take the $700 plunge to test this? I want to know if it's as ridiculous as it sounds.

eklitzke• 3 years ago

They have a video demonstrating the laser display (laser part is about 3 minutes in): https://vimeo.com/882968794

AlexandrB• 3 years ago

Oof, next level DRM/anti repair:

01:49 > The AI pin privacy chip also protects it from being exploited, which means if it's ever physically tampered with, it will require service from humane to restore operation.

gus_massa• 3 years ago

Is that real or CGI? I looked at it for a long time and I didn't find any smoking gun (perhaps too much shacking, it looks like fake shacking). I've seen too many videos of Captain Disillusion, in particular https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbgvSi35n6o

outside12343• 3 years ago

Am I the only one that hates interacting with things by voice? And also when other people do it?

etchalon• 3 years ago

This is a product for CEOs. Not people.

nickrubin2• 3 years ago

Their demo of AI Q&A in the announcement video (@3:36) is totally wrong. The Pin says the April 2024 total eclipse will be best viewed from Australia and East-Timor... Except the eclipse passes over the US and will be nowhere near Australia. The answer seems to be about a partial eclipse in April 2023. How was that not fact checked???

paxys4• 3 years ago

That's what you get when your futuristic "AI pin" works by making an API request to an off-the-shelf LLM (ChatGPT I assume) that was last trained a year ago.

SahAssar• 3 years ago

Eclipses are extremely predictable, right? I don't think the problem is that the LLM has old data, the problem is that is wrong.

nickrubin2• 3 years ago

This is especially embarrassing because their logo is literally an eclipse and it's the name of one of their color options... Seriously??

jeffbee• 3 years ago

They're not "color options" they are "colorways", you rube. And it doesn't come in three shades of grey, it comes in "Lunar", "Equinox", and "Eclipse". Those colors are worth easily $100 of the MSRP right there.

mkumar10• 3 years ago

| How was that not fact checked???

Cause they aren't Apple, just the cheap knock-offs

jswny2• 3 years ago

Apple doesn't make anything close to this hardware?

gardenhedge4• 3 years ago

The demo was showing how you can interact with it. I don't think this is a big deal. If they're using GPT-4 or another model, then it will be resolved when the AI model is.

djur• 3 years ago

What reason do we have to believe that the underlying technology will improve enough for the product to be actually usable? Many of this product's features require a degree of trust that clearly isn't merited at this stage. An assistant that tells me to go to an event at a place it's not happening is worse than useless. Their advertising shows a person asking "can I eat this?" with a piece of fruit -- that's not a question you want a hallucinated answer to!

ilaksh• 3 years ago

They did an excellent job. The small delays are close to impossible to avoid at this point. Although I may have seen one or two demos that managed to avoid them for conversation only. But those systems could not take any actions.

forgetfreeman• 3 years ago

It would be difficult for them to be more poorly positioned in the market. They don't own their network, are leaning on powerful incumbent players for the base of their tech stack, and are entering a market where any one of a number of existing global brands are poised to crush them the second the concept shows the first sign of gaining traction in the market. Not sure if this is a naked attempt to grift early adopters, dumb money, or an acquisition play. Hamhanded in any case.

xnx2• 3 years ago

Good exploration of the clip/pin/brooch form-factor that was previously explored by the Narrative Clip (http://getnarrative.com/). Can it be worn on a necklace? That seems more convenient than attaching it to different pieces of clothes and having it tear/wrench at the fabric.

l33tman• 3 years ago

The Narrative Clip is 18g, this is 55g... I can tell from experience that 18g on your t-shirt is OK, but just barely. A 55g is clunky like crazy. It's OK if you're going to do some action cam footage in a session, but not wearing all day "without thinking of it".

cepp• 3 years ago

I’m a Humane employee who has worked on nearly all the Ai features in the product. We’re very happy to get this out into the world and start getting feedback!

tsunamifury• 3 years ago

The Comm Badge was never meant to be a full interaction device, just a point to point communicator. Since it has limited UX capability, a single use case made sense.

Why are you trying to do something totally different with what appears to be an obviously constrained interaction paradigm?

smoldesu• 3 years ago

Two questions, with no obligation to answer them:

- What's the argument for using this instead of a full-fat computer with ambient capabilities? (think iPhone/Siri or Android/Assistant)

- How does Humane expect the $699 price point to develop in the future? Is the intention to bring prices down, or capabilities up?

peanuty13• 3 years ago

The price point is $700 plus a $24 monthly subscription.

uxhacker2• 3 years ago

So when will it launch in Poland and or Europe?

One question is does it work over Wifi when there is no wireless coverage?

Also what would roaming costs do when you travel?

gizajob15• 3 years ago

Your AI hallucinated it's answer about the location of the eclipse. Why was this a) allowed to happen, and b) included in the video without fact-checking?

swagempire• 3 years ago

This product screams for market validation. But I wish them great luck, because I love these kinds of product experiments.

tomohelix3• 3 years ago

From a consumer standpoint, I do not see the main advantages of this device over a better designed smartwatch or a smart wristband. The main interface, i.e. the projection onto the hand is a very novel and innovative concept but also blurry and cumbersome. A watch would also technically be able to perform all the function shown here. And personally, with how much we are all in need of a smartphone, might as well make something like a smart bracer. That would give all the space needed for the battery and screen and computation and roll everything into one, phone, watch, AI, etc.

Do we have holograms tech yet?

sawert• 3 years ago

They likely went with this form factor because it allows for the camera to look forward and use that context in its responses. A watch wouldn't easily be able to do this.

kevinsundar• 3 years ago

You could make a smartwatch with a camera facing up from the screen. The user could bring their palm to their chest (so watchface faces out) to activate it. Then the camera can see forward and the microphone is close to the user.

And then you could do video calls on the same device too.

tomohelix3• 3 years ago

If so, they made a big bet. Vision LLMs were literally made this year. Before that, parsing images to get a coherent response is pretty resource intensive and not really reliable at all. Designing the entire device around image capturing for context seems like a very risky approach so I doubt that was their main reason.

madeofpalk2• 3 years ago

I think this product is DOA.

But, like the Apple Vision Pro (which I don't think is as DOA as this), I'm most curious to know where this goes in 5-10 years.

singularity2001• 3 years ago

I wish them good luck and I wish good luck to the guy who develops the tap which is a similar concept without camera laser just microphone and GPT connection

simbolit• 3 years ago

They say they don't listen for watchwords and only record video on demand. Good.

But that means their hypothetical calorie-count example only works if you actively remember "I am eating, I should tell the pin to record my eating". Same with many other things; the wrist-worn smart devices are useful exactly because they are always recording, they are somewhat ambient.

I understand why they do it, I even applaud them for thinking about privacy, it might even be necessary (cough..Google glass...cough), but I feel they have to walk a tightrope between a rock and a hard place to bring privacy-consciousness and useful features together.

reliablereason• 3 years ago

Yeah I was thinking on similar lines when it comes to food tracking. I did a study last year on how food consumption correlates with certain psychological features, but the lack of good data made the study very hard to do.

Self reported data is always annoyingly unreliable.

This product would probably be better than self reporting, but not good enough.

The privacy issue is annoying thing. If it was a on-device ai model things might be easier to accept. But I such a device is further in to the future.

zombiwoof• 3 years ago

a smart watch with cellular and bluetooth earbuds aren't cool enough for the tech bros in sf

solarpunk• 3 years ago

so, you think they'd get acquired by axon?

paxys4• 3 years ago

It's funny that the company was founded 6+ years ago and this product has been in development at least since that time, but all of a sudden it's all about AI? We really going to pretend all these features weren't shoveled in in the last 3 months by buying a ChatGPT API token?

Recognizing the food you are holding and coming up with a calorie count was the only part of the demo I found genuinely cool, but I also know that AI tech isn't far enough along to get anywhere close to accurate results right now in the real world.

Something like AI Pin might be ubiquitous like the smartphone at some point in the future, but right now isn't the time for it, and Humane may or may not be the company to eventually crack the code.

lachyg2• 3 years ago

(i'm an investor in the company, and invested over 3 years ago.)

this product has always been about AI—what they launched is almost exactly what they pitched me. their expectation of where the world going ended up being prescient.

progne• 3 years ago

Why this was done as a separate piece of hardware rather than a phone app? Was it the projector that attracted you to the project?

gizajob15• 3 years ago

Call them tomorrow and ask them to fire whoever caused the AI to hallucinate on their tech demo and give a wholly incorrect answer to the question of "where is the next eclipse". Get them to fire whoever didn't check that video for accuracy while you're at it.

notfed• 3 years ago

Recognizing the food you are holding and coming up with a calorie count was the only part of the demo I found genuinely cool

That's a software problem, though. A company who solves that and does it well will be a killer app and doesn't need gimmicky hardware.

gs17• 3 years ago

Recognizing the food you are holding and coming up with a calorie count was the only part of the demo I found genuinely cool

And that's also pretty much just OpenAI's API.

impulser_• 3 years ago

Recognizing the food you are holding and coming up with a calorie count was the only part of the demo I found genuinely cool

Fun fact. It was completely wrong. That wasn't 15g of Protein. You would need like 3x that much for 15g of protein.

It was also wrong about the solar eclipse.

gizajob15• 3 years ago

As a piece of computing hardware, even with the most recent Snapdragon, it seems likely that it will have to transfer back and forth to the cloud for it's AI on a continual basis which will add loads of annoying latency.

The food thing is cool for that use case because calorie counting via an app is tedious. But holding up a dragon fruit and asking "can I eat this?" is beyond ridiculous.

anonymouse008• 3 years ago

Missed a huge opportunity to market:

Wave over wake

Then do some type of magic proximity sensor to begin capture, then detect if hand is facing in or out, to then wake. The tap and hold is too much, and the marketing interplay of magic wand wave as the open command could have made powerful ads.

That said, this is still the best glimpse of the future. Incredible job by the team

tomohelix3• 3 years ago

Agree. If they want this to be practical, they have to make it instantly project the image when I raise my hand with palm open towards the device. A gadget that actively make the user feel inconvenient when they want to use it would not be used at all.

I assume the problem is space. They are basically out of space for more features. I still pitch my idea for a smart bracer though. Like the thing in mass effect or the pipboy.

jaChEWAg2• 3 years ago

Having the word "Ai" in the name of a product makes it feel cheap and not premium. People don't care about Ai but more so what it can do for them.

Someone12342• 3 years ago

I agree. Customer experience is key, if you start with how a product should make you feel and work backwards into creating that feeling, I feel like the market strategy handles itself. This feels like a "we can do this, so let's do it, and figure out why later."

This reminds me a lot of Google Glass. Cool technology, but they forgot the WHY.

croes• 3 years ago

Signed up for their newsletter month ago, didn't receive any news about a beginning sale.

What's the opposite of spam?

jjtheblunt• 3 years ago

Crickets?

barbazoo• 3 years ago

Signed up for their newsletter month ago

Did it actually sign you up? The UX when I just tried didn't make it clear at all if it worked.

dcreater2• 3 years ago

maps

busssard2• 3 years ago

Yay privacy out of the window... AI wants to see and hear everything with access the Internet. Otherwise its hell of an interesting concept! Reminds me of the Robot Assistant in "flubber"

lachyg2• 3 years ago

(i'm an investor in the company.)

this is probably the most privacy-forward hardware device on the market—you have to physically be making contact with the device for it to begin listening (at which point an LED is prominently visible) and it will stop listening as soon as you break contact.

uxhacker2• 3 years ago

Do you know when it will launch in Poland or Europe? I want one.

I often have to deal with communicating with people in other languages this would save me so much time.

ginko• 3 years ago

it will stop listening as soon as you break contact

..or so they say

geoffeg• 3 years ago

Honestly, I don't think the concern is this particular product or company, even if they can truly adhere to a privacy-first policy. For me the consideration is a slow erosion of privacy from any company or product. For instance: twenty years ago the idea that someone could quickly take a discreet high-quality video with something in their pocket wasn't possible. Smart phones made that possible, then we see things like Google Glass and now these accessory pendant devices will make it even easier. To be clear, I'm not against things like the Humane and Rewind pendants, I'm just curious about how they will impact society, especially considering how quickly we're moving without putting much thought into their impacts.

sebastiennight2• 3 years ago

Thanks for your reply.

However,

- he's not touching it during the phone call - it's not super clear in the demo when he's saying "your engagement comes through your voice, touch, gesture, or the lasering display"

How do you engage through (a) voice or (b) gesture then?

abeyer3• 3 years ago

Even if that's true, if it sees any success it will both normalize that type of device in public, and very shortly see aliexpress flooded with a bunch of cheap clones from companies with no such beliefs.

gizajob15• 3 years ago

*everyone else’s privacy

verdverm• 3 years ago

Have you tried the device?

Are you using it daily?

Have you changed your habits?

kkielhofner2• 3 years ago

Is this done physically/electrically?

Echo devices, for example, were sold as having a "hardware mute switch" from day one. Sure enough, teardown after teardown[0] has confirmed the hardware mute switch actually physically disables the mic (cuts power to the ADC, mic lines, etc).

If this is implemented in software it's no different than a phone and worse than an Echo.

[0] https://electronupdate.blogspot.com/2021/01/amazon-echo-flex...

daavid13• 3 years ago

That might be nice, but this simply refers to the information capture window, how about the bigger problem being all your data being beamed to OAI servers ?

friend_and_foe2• 3 years ago

Physically make contact as in, tap it with your hand TNG style? Or worse, hold contact with your hand? How do you project the laser display and talk without using both hands? Is the hand criss crossing difficult I'm this situation?

An LED comes on... Is it bright? Can you see it direct line of sight from your eye to your shirt without fussing with it? Is the LED just there for others to know the owner isn't recording the conversation?

Can the camera passively watch in hardware with a firmware update? Is the physical contact for audio capture in hardware or software?

rapjr9• 3 years ago

A lot of people are saying that using this device would require speaking all kinds of private things out loud in public, but people would likely alter their behavior and use of the device in public. The nature of the questions they ask would be different, they would self-censor. In private they'd use it differently. People don't watch porn on their phone in the subway (mostly) and they wouldn't state their credit card info out loud using this on a subway either. If you have to say "take a photo" then the people around you know you are taking a photo. If it can record video it should beep occasionally or something. I still don't have a complete idea of how the UI works though, can the projector project onto a wall instead of your hand? Can you listen to replies via wireless earbuds? Would like to see something more in depth about how to use it and what can be accomplished with it.

busssard2• 3 years ago

privacy forward hardware for the sensors. But i am assuming all input to the model can be used for training? Just as it is current standard for any AI assistant? So my conversations, my calendar every thing will be open to one entity. Otherwise it would not be able to condense them into a summary. i dont have privacy anymore if the entity reads everything. Even if my friends do not consent to their texts being fed into the AI as input. This is a privacy issue for me, regardless of me allowing it to activate camera or microphone. Nothing stops a hacker with access to query the entity to spit out all users that have a depressed sentiment analysis of their texting history etc...

kylebenzle• 3 years ago

Cell phones have microphones too.

pech0rin• 3 years ago

weebo is about 100x more useful than this

jaChEWAg2• 3 years ago

I think the founders undermined this product with their launch strategy, first showcasing it on a TED talk briefly without fully exposing the hardware, then about a month later in a fashion show? Then now they make this half baked video that immediately goes into talking about the hardware yet the whole selling point of the device is the software Ai capabilities.

People have been eagerly waiting to hear what this secretive startup company has been working all these years, especially after the recent funding rounds. All of this to be disappointed with a half baked v1 and launch video.

All that aside, I think it's brave of them to enter a competitive market and introduce a unique product that could have potential but at this price point, I'll have to pass. Hope future iterations get better and continues to grow.

Congratulations to all the team at Humane who's been working on this over the years, especially those who took the risk of leaving Apple to join a startup.

notaustinpowers2• 3 years ago

I couldn't agree with you more. The release strategy was...confusing? I guess is the best way to word it. But even this launch video which is supposed to introduce this groundbreaking new device to replace the smartphone feels homemade. The speaking is unnatural and too practiced, the awkward silences of waiting for a response feel uncomfortable. For a company named Humane, I'm getting uncanny valley vibes.

But I also understand this is how many new technologies releases go (lots of WTFs and lots of oohs and aahs). I think it really has potential, but the team will have to be adaptive and quick to respond to make sure the Pin can really grab hold of what the consumer wants.

mszcz• 3 years ago

Had the same feeling. This had all the hallmarks of vaporware for me - something was introduced in a TED talk (that's a personal turn off). No clear definition or description. Then the fashion show, and for what? Building "buzz"? About what? Then I started hearing some chatter about it but still no info on what it is. I felt like someone wanted me to get excited about it but provided no value whatsoever.

Now, this thing's introduced and what? The laser interface seems clunky, no idea how it holds up on a bright day outside. Most of the interactions are done by voice which, at least for me, have never been satisfactory on way more powerful and polished devices. Then there's the privacy - I'm assuming that for this thing to work I need to give it access to everything. How long has this company been operating and battle testing its security? How good or bad its track record is with regard to selling my data? And yes, I know that my smartphone already knows everything about me. But those things are built by either Apple or Google which at least have some track record and I know what I can expect from them, more or less.

I still don't understand what am I getting here? What's the revolutionary, exciting thing? The AI? The lasers? The voice interface? The always-on-your-person?

If I remove the lasers, add a screen and a OpenAI/whateverLLM interface & integration I get what? An Apple Watch (or Google or whatever) that's 1-2 years out probably.

What's nice however that they're trying things. The laser thing does seem cool.

edit: Commas, sentence structure.

partiallypro• 3 years ago

I like the idea of technology fading to the background in a world where it's right in your face; but some of this does seem limited. For instance, how can you ask it to capture something, but you have no idea what it is capturing? Also I'm curious how fast the AI can translate, GPT, Google Translate, Bing Translate, etc are still pretty slow during live translations.

d--b• 3 years ago

I’ve been wanting something like this for a long time (voice first with laser projecion). Somehow I’d envisioned it as a tiny pet monkey robot sitting on my shoulder.

joaizn• 3 years ago

Now this is something I'd buy!

hbosch• 3 years ago

I just don't get this, or any other "VUI"/voice-centric platform for that matter. The killer feature of the smartphone or watch isn't that it's the most convenient (which it is), it's that whatever you want to do on it is at least somewhat private. I don't want the guy next to me on the train to know I'm messaging Andrew, and he doesn't want to hear me message Andrew either. Asking me to speak out loud these commands removes that privacy. I think this type of "out loud interface" is the wrong direction for personal devices... forcing us to expose our "private selves" or conflate that with our "public selves" is really an area where humans need to draw the line, IMO.

This is why Alexa (and other voice assistants) are only really valuable in the home, and typically as communal devices... its mode is public by default. "What's the weather?", "Play The Beatles", "Add milk to my shopping list" are not expected to be private. How does a device like Humane offer us an "incognito mode", where everyone within earshot doesn't know exactly what I'm doing?

newaccount742• 3 years ago

I wonder where this dislike of talking to computers in public is coming from?

People often discuss private topics on a train, and don't care that others might be listening.

People talk loudly on the phone when in public. Some even talk on speaker phone.

But noone ever talks to Siri or Google or Alexa in public.

Why is that?

abeyer3• 3 years ago

Do some people do those things in public? Sure.

Does everyone else look askance at them and think they're being rude by doing so? Also yes.

mplewis• 3 years ago

Frankly, because it’s embarrassing.

superluserdo• 3 years ago

Because people find the concept of a person talking to themselves in public a bit weird, and talking into a completely unthinking machine is basically that. Maybe perceptions could change when low-latency conversational AI is very widespread but I think for the medium term unless there's a second human involved, people will still instinctively see it as talking to yourself, not talking to "someone".

mr_toad• 3 years ago

But noone ever talks to Siri or Google or Alexa in public.

Because it looks like you’re talking to yourself, and people tend to avoid people who talk to themselves. Especially on the train.

gizajob15• 3 years ago

Because talking is a function of conversation between two or more people. It isn't the act of speech as a one way carrier. I've been able to dictate to my computer for years but nevertheless still prefer to type. Dictation is actually a skill one has to learn, as in the case of people such as lawyers and actuaries who don't type their own letters, it doesn't come very naturally to most people.

joquarky• 3 years ago

Because if nobody is next to you and you suddenly start talking, some people nearby will likely misperceive that you are talking to them.

garrickvanburen• 3 years ago

Siri/google/alexa generally understand less without repetition, especially as complexity increases, than our fellow human. Making it doubly annoying in public

donpark• 3 years ago

Think about aging population. As to privacy, same problem exists with taking phone calls in public yet we somehow manage just fine.

spacecadet• 3 years ago

And public pay phones used privacy shrouds... I think they managed to understand the implications long ago.

I see this as another war on privacy by the population of extroverted over-sharers that inhabit social media.

phs318u• 3 years ago

I agree with you. The killer innovation which will flip this is the ability to interact via hardware that takes sub-vocalisation as input. There's work being actively done in this area:

https://news.mit.edu/2018/computer-system-transcribes-words-...

https://ieeexplore.ieee.org/document/8104532

cactusplant7374• 3 years ago

I thought you were going to say the screen is the killer feature. It’s hard to Tok without it.

anonzzzies• 3 years ago

Yes, but we lack good input methods for on the go. Typing on the phone is ok for quick texts but not much more. AR has this issue as well. I tried things like chording keyboards etc but nothing really works and so lacking that, it’s going to be voice…

notaustinpowers2• 3 years ago

I'm not gonna lie, this type of technology is what I've been looking forward to ever since watching the movie Her. As a first generation of the technology, it definitely has some issues and oddities, but I think those could be easy enough to work out with future iterations and updates.

A more natural speaking voice. Bluetooth earphones for a more personal interaction experience with the device (maybe even control with your hand in front of the camera and receive audio feedback through the earphones)? Color projector with more fidelity as a new form of interaction (can use it like a screen for short periods, but it's not the main interaction method).

I'd also think some advancements for on-device processing of daily life/events could be really helpful. For example, being able to have it sync to a cloud drive as a repository of my docs (like Google NotebookLM), or holding up a piece of paper in front of it and having it record it and process that info. Just so it's able to better operate as an analogue of a real life PERSONAL assistant, rather than an assistant that just searches the internet for me and tells me what's on my phone.

I don't want to get my hopes up, and it definitely has a tough road ahead of it to disrupt the industry, but I think it really could become an incredibly useful product.

polynomial2• 3 years ago

As long as it doesn't run away with Alan Watts.

xnx2• 3 years ago

I'm guessing the prominent mention of Qualcomm in the demo was a paid placement?

paxys4• 3 years ago

Communication seems to be a major selling point of the pin going by the demo, but I'm pretty certain it is impossible for it to work with iMessage, WhatsApp etc. in the way that is shown, so I'm wary about the actual advantages.

asadm• 3 years ago

You can always reply to notifications. Just like non-apple smartwatches allow.

paxys4• 3 years ago

This is a standalone device with its own cellular connection. There is no smartphone involved and no notifications to reply to.

figers2• 3 years ago

Is an apple watch already solving this, already has my phone number on a cellular plan, can easily text and call, has Siri (not the best, but can be improved), could use a ChatGPT app, can leave my phone at home, etc?

sebastiennight2• 3 years ago

I think they're playing with the form factor. Your watch is, in a way, more obtrusive to use. Their gadget can record the conversation, take photos, take dictation hands-off and is also closer to your head.

orbifold• 3 years ago

pocket watches existed at some point, glancing down on your wrist is way less annoying than having something attached to your shirt pocket all day.

figers2• 3 years ago

poisonborz• 3 years ago

I can't see this being a hit in any significant way. You will NOT want to use this in public. Why would you want people listening to you dictate, which is the only input option? Why would anyone feel comfortable around you if you were wearing a camera badge?

Pulcinella• 3 years ago

$700 + $24/month for an uglier plastic name badge + police body camera. No thanks

Also:

To put on the Ai Pin involves placing a magnetic battery pack on the inside of a shirt or other piece of clothing, and letting a magnet on the Pin itself hold the system in place. It’s altogether about 55 grams, or 2 ounces, nearly the weight of a tennis ball. People with pacemakers should consult their doctors about potential magnetic interference, Chaudhri says.

It's pretty heavy and the backside of the clip is a magnetic battery pack.

jklinger410• 3 years ago

$700 + $24/month for an uglier plastic name badge + police body camera

Hah, yeah man, that's totally what it is!

shmatt• 3 years ago

imagine someone bumping into you and the battery gets slightly dislodged, your $700 does-95%-less-than-an-iphone device has now shattered on the floor

Someone• 3 years ago

If it’s even halfway decently engineered, why would it shatter? The total package weighs 55 grams, the front part likely less than half of that, and it doesn’t have large glass areas.

postalrat• 3 years ago

Shattering on the floor shouldn't be normal for a device you carry around. Apple fooled you into thinking glass was a premium material.

nashashmi• 3 years ago

I said this in a different news thread on this topic but that one didn't reach front page.

They need to narrow down the scope of this product. It's a product with an unusual form factor. They should Make it perfect just for a few things. And don't try to kill the phone or any other device.

There is a beautiful use case for this. It's like an apple watch with a sim. Out working in the field, with things in hand, ask for whatever you need to ask. It can even do FaceTime showing what's in the field. And enable police patrol to approach a target and use remote intervention to neutralize a situation.

germinalphrase• 3 years ago

I’m working on a tool that would build assessments for educators in real time as they teach. I could see a device like this being helpful for dictation and content collection (if it plays nicely with others). Transitional, non-glasses AR. Not sold on the potential, but cool tech nonetheless.

rfwhyte• 3 years ago

I love the idea of some virtual daemon type AI assistant thingy that helps me with mundane day to day tasks via an intuitive natural language type interface. Sci-fi / cyberpunk authors have been writing about this stuff for decades and it's always seemed like super cool and useful tech to me.

That being said I positively LOATHE the idea of it being some cloud based subscription service, as inevitably, no matter how much the founders of these companies talk about privacy or security, it will become yet another corporate data harvester that spies on you and sells your personal information to the highest bidder, or provides a backdoor for governments or other non-state entities to surveil you. Money talks, and morals walk. Let's not forget Ring gives LEA footage from peoples door cameras just for asking nicely with no way for users to opt-out.

Personally, as much as I want something like this (Though the dorky badge format is a big miss for me) I will never, ever, EVER go for something like this unless I OWN the software and that software runs on hardware I OWN as well. I'm sure a lot of folks will get excited by this thing, but as it stands now it's just bog-standard run of the mill, every day dystopian nightmare fuel for me.

jdmoreira• 3 years ago

Apple will simply own this market as well, if it even becomes a market at all. They are by far the best positioned company and everyone already is locked in to the hardware.

As soon as Siri becomes good by leveraging llm, Apple is bound to dominate here. You don't even need another device to get half of what this does. Next gen airpods/ apple watches provide similar use cases.

akokanka• 3 years ago

Apple lost a lot these days. Leadership is almost gone. Some companies are built by leaders and die with their leaders.

gizajob15• 3 years ago

Tim Cook has done his supply-chain job and needs to move along. Not sure why investors aren’t pushing for this. I was listening to the recent earnings call and when he says things like “super excited” he couldn’t sound more monotonously unexcited. Jony Ive would have made a great CEO and figurehead.

gardenhedge4• 3 years ago

Seems like this Humane product has beaten Apple and Google to the punch even though they have the voice assistants for years

thebigman433• 3 years ago

Because most voice assistants arent that good yet, and those companies already had products that basically maxed out the value of the voice assistants (watch/earbuds).

Humane has beaten other companies to the punch, if you count a flailing noodle arm as a "punch". This device clearly needs significantly more work on the ecosystem, accuracy of answers (it gave 2 wrong answers in the video), and actual input. The projector idea is absolutely terrible, and Im certain this will essentially end up a voice only device for the people that do buy it. The projector wont work outdoors at all, and even indoors, it looks terrible to actually use.

ericsilva2• 3 years ago

They already own this market – wearable computers – with the Apple Watch.

zanderwohl• 3 years ago

This reminds me a lot of the Cicret bracelet. A device that small is not gonna give you a good projection image...

justanotheratom• 3 years ago

I am just getting OCD watching the demo, worrying it will fall off any time.

gizajob15• 3 years ago

My gut tells me this is going to crash and burn in a hilarious way.

Not only is it worse than holding a smartphone while being less useful, street kids are going to pull these off people at a phenomenal rate, leaving people with just unhappy memories alongside a battery pack swimming somewhere inside their jumper.

kkielhofner2• 3 years ago

street kids are going to pull these off people at a phenomenal rate, leaving people with just unhappy memories alongside a battery pack swimming somewhere inside their jumper.

I can't believe I didn't think of this.

Imagine a dev conference for these things... The first headline would be "Humane AI Pin Developers Cleaned Out". A group of bad actors could (would) just run down a line/through a room and snatch these one after the other with nothing more than a weak magnet slowing them down.

Yes they can be locked down but even with Apple and Google-level measures implemented over the years phones still get stolen to be sent to China (or wherever) and parted out for pennies on the dollar for the thief. There's also the usual problem of a lot of this being opportunity/impulse crime and a lot of criminals are just going to think "I don't know what that is, looks expensive", grab it, and see what they can get for it later.

This is probably the best example of the "Silicon Valley elites in their bubble disconnected from the real world" tropes that are always floating around.

paulcole• 3 years ago

I can't believe I didn't think of this.

Because it’s not going to happen.

There were about a trillion sets of wired white earbuds pointing to iPods/iPhones for about a decade plus. Sure, there were some thefts, but to say they happened at a “phenomenal rate” would be nonsense. And iPods/iPhones were orders of magnitudes more popular than this Pin will ever be.

Street kids won’t even know what a Pin is.

dcreater2• 3 years ago

I think it's simpler. It's not going to be a thing at all.

living_room_pc• 3 years ago

The laser projector thingy sounds cool. I want to try it.

But beyond that, aren't voice assistants kind of dead? Sure it is probably much better powered by today's LLMs. I think it was the function and not the form that killed that market. (Alexa, Google Home, Siri and so on...)

For $700 and a $24/mo sub subscription... Lets see if it sticks.

cft• 3 years ago

The new SV bubble is inflating! Say hi to real estate price increases.

cmdrk• 3 years ago

the camera always being out makes me as deeply uncomfortable with this as i was with Glass.

zentr1c• 3 years ago

Let's make orwell fiction again.

Dig1t• 3 years ago

Mostly this is silly, props for making it just like the communicator from Star Trek TNG.

I can only think of one use case that would be awesome that I couldn’t get with an iPhone: automatic food tracking.

Having a camera mounted near your neck you could use computer vision/AI to track everything you eat and automatically tell you how many calories you’ve consumed for the day. This would be way better than manually logging food intake like we have to do now, and could be very helpful for losing weight or just staying healthy.

friend_and_foe2• 3 years ago

I like the idea or such a thing, but the actual form factor just has Google Glass vibes. I doubt anyone wants to wear a HAL on their shirt.

It would be cool to have a personal assistant on your body capable of setting appointments, answering questions, contacting people and what not without having to look at and tap a screen. Audio interface is a fantastic use case of LLMs. But I wouldn't do it unless the device was fully hackable. FOSS software, available hardware schematics, these should be bare minimum requirements today, alas they're not. At least with Android the software is available for hacking.

I like the idea of the laser projector, there are times you need to display something visual but interfacing with a phone for that requires a phone, which negates most of the hardware requirements for the device, and interfacing with existing wireless protocols and phone UX is infeasible. It's a good stopgap while we wait for real holographic techtechnology, but only works if it is not a primary interface. The primary interface has to be voice or there's no benefit to it at all.

The form factor is unattractive. First, there's the issue that voice interaction provides no secrecy in public, just as a holographic visual interface would not, then it clips to a shirt and looks like a shoplifting prevention clothing tag with a camera. If it cannot adapt to loose clothing and moving around unpredictably it doesn't make sense to attach it to clothing and needs to be attached to the body in some way.

Socially acceptable accessories are a problem. To be candid, people want to get laid, and walking around with a helmet on your head or a small computer where your pocket protector should be get in the way of this. A watch or glasses are fine, so long as they're not overly obvious in signaling that they're a nerd toy. The problem with a watch is that you can't do the laser display thing without using up two hands. The problem with glasses is that the technology to display high resolution overlays in your field of view doesn't exist yet. The problem with the laser display concept itself is that you need a hand to use it, the same hand you could use to hold a phone with a much better display. So it doesn't really offer an advantage. This form factor is basically a phone in your shirt pocket, camera facing out, with a worse display.

I like the idea, but all in all this does less than a phone running an LLM with a Bluetooth earpiece and mic. I don't think this kind of wearable technology is going to take off until you can get a full computer into glasses that don't look silly with a good resolution display in them that can overlay on your normal field of view. That is a long way off. Even just a personal area network that puts the processing power in a bracelet or candy bar in your pocket, that is, earpiece and display glasses as accessories to existing personal computing, are not coming very soon. It's going to be a while before such wearables are viable.

jiriro• 3 years ago

I bet there is a mobile/desktop app in the pipeline.

This pin is a great input/sensing device feeding an AI which gets an incredible amount of information about the owner’s context.

Combined with an old good computer (desktop/smartphone/tablet..) this could be scary revolutionary:-)

neonate• 3 years ago

https://archive.ph/U8rn9

dang• 3 years ago

Related ongoing thread:

Humane AI Pin - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38208016 - Nov 2023 (206 comments)

gardenhedge4• 3 years ago

I like it but can't afford it and I'm outside the US

mlhpdx3• 3 years ago

Body camera, but for civilians.

askiiart• 3 years ago

This reminds me of Cicret to a very worrying extent.

mutexmonk• 3 years ago

I strongly believe we need some kind of affirming visual feedback for the device. The main issue i see with a voice centric smartphone interface is the ability to control the information you see over the internet. A centralised platform like Humane network decides what information you get to consume. A visual interface allows you to navigate freely and fetch the information you need. This approach to smartphone is only restrictive.

kkoste• 3 years ago

Great. I hope everyone (except me) gets this pin. A society where everyone competes to yell out their texts is the kind of chaotic future I live for.

gizajob15• 3 years ago

Just imagine going on a date with one of these, even a business meeting - "just so you know, I'm going to be filming and recording everything you say and do by pointing this camera at you throughout, so my AI can analyse every movement and utterance of yours but none of mine. Oh but trust me, it's only recording when I say it's recording, and no, of course I'm not going to put the video of you on social media."

This is gonna be a hard sell, or lead to achingly short dates.

faramarz• 3 years ago

I don’t even care if the quality of the build is great, I bet it is, I just don’t see consumer market ready for something like this. They might have better luck in b2b world of logistics warehousing. Why are we still solving for non-existing problems? Look shiny new ai thing

masterfooo• 3 years ago

Is it safe to put a gsm device around your heart?

ericsilva2• 3 years ago

Green bubbles.

The Humane AI Pin Launches Its Campaign to Replace Phones

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