18 ms·

Humane AI Pin

• fennecfoxy 3y ago
  It looks cool, and I approve of most stuff that brings us closer to the cyberpunk world of my dreams but: Starting at 699$ damn that's pricey considering phones are already stolen out of people's hands/off tables in busy cities, do they think a thief won't rip this off someone's shirt if they see it? The display: pretty cool, but tracking seems a bit wobbly, I haven't seen a demo of it in bright sunlight and idk if it would do that well. Chest mounted camera: I mean being able to hold up something and ask it questions is pretty cool, like identifying something, or getting the price of an item from a store vs online to make sure you're paying a good price, etc. Would be great for travelling. The translation: maybe just demo but it's too slow and it doesn't show what happens when you walk through a crowded market or airport with tonnes of people speaking in diff languages, you bump into someone behind you and they say something in Spanish. How does it know to translate? You would, because you felt the bump, but the device didn't. Hand gestures: these always suck and never work well. You always end up doing things you didn't intend unless you interact with it unnaturally/according to its quirks. Asking it questions etc: our phones do this already with Siri/Google ass/Bixby. And I'm sure plenty upcoming as LLMs/elevenlabs style voices are used. "Make me sound more excited" dystopian lmao. "Catch me up": "Jane said to remember to get the report done for next week. Thomas and Aaron won't to know if you're still up for the movie tonight. BigBuns27 said thanks for railing me so hard last night big boi" yeah I want that potentially coming out at any random time during the day. My conclusion: this is fluff, we already have powerhouses with long ass battery life in our pockets already. The real side of this is an accessory that lets us interact with our phones faster and more naturally. A chest mounted camera is fine but still not as good as glasses/contacts which can see what we see, very important because we'll usually be looking at something. Glasses/contacts can also provide silent HUD help, they're much easier to provide consistent display experience vs projecting from a moving torso to a moving hand. I may be biased as someone who already wears glasses but damn was I sad when Google Glass got ridiculed (mostly by older gens) as if they'd continued & an improved version was out today I would 100% own one and develop whatever I could for it. Being able to look at something in another language and have translations superimposed over, be walking around an unfamiliar place and have subtle direction hints provided, would be amazing. Combine with bone conduction speaker and some sort of subvocalisation system to ask questions/give commands and it would be absolute fire. I don't want this weird kickstarter-esque device; I want Google Glass back ;~;
• dukeyukey 3y ago
  Any word when it'll be released outside the US?
• bonyt 3y ago
  Star Trek combadge vibes. Neat.
  • dmarchand90 3y ago
    I was hoping to be the first to notice this :D
  • verdverm 3y ago
    Already have it in my ear, which is honestly better than on my shirt
• william-evans 3y ago
  This is cool, it's a nicer abstraction than what the Google Glasses & then Meta Glasses tried to go for...but it's still a pin I have to wear on my shirt which is stopping me from adopting.
  • metalrain 3y ago
    At least for me it's very common to have several layers of clothing on most days. It would be hassle to attach this from outer jacket to shirt when moving from outside to inside.
• whatever1 3y ago
  Biggest issue is that people hate talking to computers in public. Alexa was the closest to achieve significant usage since you can use it within the privacy of your home. For voice UIs the non clear boundaries on what you think it can or cannot do is also a huge hurdle. After you get a couple “sorry I cannot do that” you stop using it
  • fennecfoxy 3y ago
    I just find voice control too outward to use in public. I don't want people to know what I'm doing, even if it's something totally innocent, plus it would also be super annoying to be on a train full of people going "blah blah blah" to their devices. If we could subvocalise with throat or other microphones/bone speaker then maaaybe, but I feel like it's better left to a brain interface and we should really just stick to touchscreen/typing interaction for now.
  • unshavedyak 3y ago
    I agree, BUT, i think it's going to get a lot better soon. Ie i loathe Siri because it felt like there was always some incantation i had to remember. Like a very terrible CLI. LLMs though, even if we never get intelligence right, i think can help this area significantly. Combine that with areas like GPT Vision, (GPT?) Whisper, etc .. it'll start feeling a lot more natural here very soon i suspect. TBH i'm surprised Apple isn't pushing this much harder. They tout Siri so hard but it's just worthless to me. It feels like apple could make a AI Pin like this, but visibly from the public side i have zero idea that the're even working in this space. It feels like they purposefully watched the boat sail away. edit: Sidenote, Pin + Airpods would be a nice way to interface more quietly too.
    • rrrrrrrrrrrryan 3y ago
      The Google assistant has been years ahead of Siri and Alexa for a good while now. I've been able to give it really loose sloppy commands, even stuttering or backtracking on my sentences, and does a competent job of figuring out what I want. In my experience Siri is much more dependent on keywords and certain phrasing, and doesn't quite integrate as deeply into one's life because Apple isn't doesn't play Google's game of slurping up all your personal data and all the public data on the internet. These next gen AI voice assistants are still a solid improvement over Google's current offerings, but they'll feel like a massive jump into the future for folks that have been stuck in Apple's ecosystem, and that's probably where the biggest opportunity lies.
• jdiez17 3y ago
  It was looking very promising until I read "A subscription is required to use Ai Pin." right at the bottom of the page. Oh well.
  • CharlesW 3y ago
    SmartBrooch is a $699 + a $24-a-month subscription commitment.
  • owlninja 3y ago
    Well it does come with a phone line and data coverage through T-Mobile, so like a cell phone really?
    • umeshunni 3y ago
      Can I use my own el-cheapo SIM with it?
  • make3 3y ago
    true. it does make sense however, you can't expect the ai model to reside in the wearable device
    • whywhywhywhy 3y ago
      It's seemingly OpenAI API https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/9/23953901/humane-ai-pin-launch-date-price-openai https://www.theverge.com/2023/11/9/23953901/humane-ai-pin-la...
• georgelyon 3y ago
  On Mobile Safari: A problem repeatedly occurred on "https://hu.ma.ne/aipin https://hu.ma.ne/aipin". I guess they really do hate smartphones…
  • IMcD23 3y ago
    Same...
• deleted 3y ago
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• boeingUH60 3y ago
  > Another revelation from that FCC filing: OpenAI CEO Sam Altman is Humane’s largest shareholder. > Altman owns “14.93% equity and voting through a number of holding companies none of which individually holds 10% or greater ownership interest in Humane,” the filing states. https://www.lowpass.cc/p/humane-ai-pin-cellular-mvno-sam-altman https://www.lowpass.cc/p/humane-ai-pin-cellular-mvno-sam-alt...
  • magneticnorth 3y ago
    Huh, interesting. He is known for not having any equity in OpenAI - interesting that he has other AI investments instead.
    • jstummbillig 3y ago
      Sam might be completely wrong about the most important things (I don't think so, but I don't think it's super unlikely either) and I still peg him as mostly genuine and smart, while not being very concerned with and certainly not being very good at being likeable. He was fairly outspoken about getting (even more) rich off of other investments and believing OpenAI was simply too important to make it a conflict of interest, and mostly considers it a nuisance/distraction. That's fairly arrogant, and, again, might be completely off but I still do believe he means that and I would give it good odds to be the entirely right course of action, if most impact/most quickly is what you are going for.
  • deleted 3y ago
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  • schnable 3y ago
    A lot of that subscription fee is flowing back to OpenAI.
  • deleted 3y ago
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• xnx 3y ago
  Discussion in progress here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38207656 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38207656
• iamcasen 3y ago
  I've been waiting for this. Seems like it is a self-contained cellular device requiring a subscription, which makes sense. I guess I am curious how I can be in communication with it. Will my contacts be texted from a new phone number? That seems like the biggest hurdle for me, as I'd just like to use my pre-existing cellular service that I already pay for. I also find it curious that a former Apple exec formed this company. I'd assume Apple itself would want to pursue this internally, as such a device would be yet another killer addition to the iron grip of the Apple ecosystem.
  • belugacat 3y ago
    Imran wasn’t an exec, just an IC designer.
    • azinman2 3y ago
      He was a lot more than “just an IC designer”
      • ryandrake 3y ago
        Bethany wasn't an exec either, but she was a project manager reasonably high up on the totem pole. It's nice to see this product isn't actually vapor. Congrats to them.
• deleted 3y ago
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• paxys 3y 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.
  • tasoeur 3y ago
    100% this, the lack of a clear 3rd party integration path does raise alarm bells in terms of breaking into mainstream as a customer product. Curious to see where they are going with their “we don’t do apps” LLM ecosystem.
• filterfiber 3y ago
  Genuinely asking, problem does this solve? And won't apple instantly destroy them the moment they use an LLM for siri? Why wouldn't I use my existing watch/phone/earbuds/pods instead of paying 600$+subscription for this? I don't understand the insistence on using voice as the main interaction and ditching the screen. At least google glass/AR let's me read
  • mpalmer 3y ago
    Instantly destroy? Or acquire?
    • belugacat 3y ago
      Quite a few bridges were burned to form the company, an acquisition would be a surprising development.
      • zffr 3y ago
        Can you expand on that? How did humane burn bridges to form the company?
        • nameless912 3y ago
          Aren't the humane folks a bunch of ex-Google/ex-Android execs?
          • polynomial 3y ago
            Who is the extremely slow talking spokesperson?
          • killerdhmo 3y ago
            Wrong, ex-Apple people
    • filterfiber 3y ago
      A bit tongue in cheek - I said "instantly destroy" because if the main selling point is an ai voice assistant, then people would just use what's already built into their phone/watch/airpods instead of paying 600$ if apple was to implement a better LLM for siri. I'm skeptical of the usefulness of the hand projection vs a watch. And I think anyone who wants to bring a camera would be far better served by an iphone (or any phone).
• jejeyyy77 3y ago
  lol looks awful
• jeffbee 3y ago
  The device and the subscription both cost more than my Pixel 8 Pro + Google Fi. Seems a bit steep, especially considering that the P8P can do most or all of these AI tricks and then some, except for clinging to my shirt.
• montekaka 3y ago
  is there any SDK or API?
• anonymouse008 3y ago
  They need their modern Chiat\Day because right now they are about to squander the best movement in hardware tech in 10 years.
• btbuildem 3y ago
  This thing better not come with a speaker. Public speakerphone users are among the most obnoxious pests.
  • jeffbee 3y ago
    Haha what do you mean, that's the main feature they are advertising here. I agree that the advent of portable high-output, low-power audio amplifiers is chiefly responsible for the downfall of human society so I, too, hate to see it.
  • jantissler 3y ago
    It even comes with a "Personic Speaker". From the website: "Ai Pin’s speaker system uses a Head Related Transfer Function (HRTF) to create a personally optimized bubble of sound, at a fixed distance, regardless of how soft or loud."
    • _Parfait_ 3y ago
      Unless physics has changed, I think headphones are the only way to do this.
      • kaibee 3y ago
        Directional speakers exist and are very effective actually. Whether this device is using one, I have no idea.
        • _Parfait_ 3y ago
          You can't create a "bubble" of sound unless that just a marketing term for quiet and facing only the user.
          • askiiart 3y ago
            Well I don't know about a bubble of sound, but there are "sound lasers" https://youtu.be/aBdVfUnS-pM https://youtu.be/aBdVfUnS-pM
• jeffbee 3y ago
  One thing I am quite interested in here is the gesture controls. Google completely fumbled their Project Soli (although I bet they filed a thousand patents for it) but it's the kind of interface I want when driving my car. Buttons are better than touchscreens but gestures could be better than both.
• hekec 3y ago
  I'm shocked at how bad the presentation video is. Almost the entire beginning of the video is about which colors are available and how the battery snaps, with zero hints about why I would need a cringe projector on me. I can't believe this was shipped by ex-Apple people. Imagine Steve Jobs introducing the iPhone like this: "We are introducing a revolutionary new device. The first thing you should know about it is that it has a charger and an Apple processor. The second most important thing: here is how the battery works."
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  • nostromo 3y ago
    Their on-screen chemistry is super odd -- particularly considering they are married and cofounders. It's giving low-rent Apple.
    • elicash 3y ago
      Oh they're married! I couldn't figure out why he kept touching and adjusting the pin on her chest, a thing I would never do with a coworker. All I knew was that she was CEO and he was Chairman, so I knew it was a joint decision. This makes so much more sense.
  • whywhywhywhy 3y ago
    The TED reveal he did was really bad but I attributed it to being live. Think it's telling that they internally didn't see that and tell him "Dude, you desperately need to take speaking classes" and that with a pre-recording that was the best take. Sign no one internally is being honest with them, feels they can say "It's bad"...
• webwielder2 3y ago
  Lucky break that LLMs became a thing while they were making this
  • chung8123 3y ago
    Given their shareholders it might not have been luck as much as they already knew.
• nostromo 3y ago
  This strikes me as a less-functional Apple Watch that you wear on your shirt instead of your wrist. (Yes, Siri is not great today, but that will change very quickly with Apple working hard on their own LLMs.) Cool project, but not something I imagine most people will want. Like Google Glass. They even did the cringey stunt Google Glass tried and featured it on the runway during Fashion Week, as if that instantly makes something fashionable: https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_1200,c_limit,q_auto:best/wp-cms/uploads/2023/11/08-90979863-mark-wilson-humane-review.jpg https://images.fastcompany.net/image/upload/w_1200,c_limit,q...
  • dmarchand90 3y ago
    It actually reminds me a lot of much older product: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj24kNJEQJs https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vj24kNJEQJs (bonyt noticed this first)
    • TeMPOraL 3y ago
      Indeed. It just screams "comm badge", which makes the product idea obvious, and makes me surprised they somehow managed to make zero references to Star Trek in the entire godawfully long landing page.
      • fnordpiglet 3y ago
        Kinda prefer a tricorder…..
    • lukifer 3y ago
      At some point, someone produced an actually working TNG comm badge as a Bluetooth phone accessory, apparently it's still for sale: https://shop.startrek.com/products/star-trek-the-next-generation-bluetooth-communicator-badge-1 https://shop.startrek.com/products/star-trek-the-next-genera... Though from the reviews I've seen (and as with so many Bluetooth devices), it's unusably terrible, and the battery only lasts a few hours.
    • Terretta 3y ago
• ExMachina73 3y ago
  I don't think this really competes with a phone. If anything it competes with a smartwatch. And as far as wearable tech, a watch blends in much better.
  • jantissler 3y ago
    And a smartwatch offers a lot of health features, too! Something many people seem to find interesting and useful. The watch is an accessory to the phone that adds features plus offers convenience and if you want to, it can temporarily substitute your phone like when you go to the gym. A cellular Apple Watch combined with Air Pods can do a lot. And both the Apple Watch and the Air Pods have use cases in addition to that in other situations. I don't see that here at all. I see a device with a very limited feature set. Edit: Wording
• tkiolp4 3y ago
  Almost. I was almost sold until they mentioned the monthly subscription. This device looks so futuristic, but monthly subscriptions are (should be) a thing of the past.
• r3nruturnEr 3y ago
  Seems like cool tech and I'm excited to see how it does. I guess I'm sort of expecting a flop since this relies on good connection and fast ai over cell signal still seems like a challenge in a lot of places (upload voice file, speech recognition, nlu/llm orchestration, etc) but I do love the idea of a less intrusive 'smart phone' that would let me leave my phone at home more. On another note, this reminds me a lot of the short story The Perfect Match by Ken Liu. The story isn't ground breaking but is worth a read and harps on AI assistants making decisions for people and driving biases based on the corporate agenda and sponsors (not to get too tinfoil hatty).
  • bookofjoe 3y ago
    https://mspreibisch.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/the-perfect-match-written-by-ken-liu-class-story.pdf https://mspreibisch.files.wordpress.com/2019/09/the-perfect-...
• paxys 3y ago
  I know this is the direct source, but people really need to go read the NY Times piece on this - https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/technology/silicon-valleys-big-bold-sci-fi-bet-on-the-device-that-comes-after-the-smartphone.html https://www.nytimes.com/2023/11/09/technology/silicon-valley.... > A Buddhist monk named Brother Spirit led them to Humane. Mr. Chaudhri and Ms. Bongiorno had developed concepts for two A.I. products: a women’s health device and the pin. Brother Spirit, whom they met through their acupuncturist, recommended that they shared the ideas with his friend, Marc Benioff, the founder of Salesforce. > Sitting beneath a palm tree on a cliff above the ocean at Mr. Benioff’s Hawaiian home in 2018, they explained both devices. “This one,” Mr. Benioff said, pointing at the Ai Pin, as dolphins breached the surf below, “is huge.” > “It’s going to be a massive company,” he added. This product was also named a "best invention of 2023" by TIME magazine before it was even released. Entirely by coincidence, Marc Benioff happens to own TIME magazine. HBO's Silicon Valley may be over, but the real world Silicon Valley is still going stronger than ever.
  • notfed 3y ago
    Wow, this device looks extremely awkward to use. Imagine having to aim this at your hand.
    • quadrature 3y ago
      maybe its tracking your hand and aiming the projection ?. Can't really say much based on the landing page, I doubt most of the interactions are as smooth as they are pictured. But it is refreshing to see a new take on mobile devices.
  • boeingUH60 3y ago
    Peak Silicon Valley is when a Buddhist monk arranges a business meeting that leads to a startup investment.
    • notahacker 3y ago
      Peak Silicon Valley is when the Buddhist monk is rewarded by someone acquiring his mantras-as-a-service subscription webapp
• ktaube 3y ago
  How is this form factor better than a smartwatch with a proper screen?
• jonplackett 3y ago
  The problem with voice interfaces in public is you look like a tosser while using the - and that's if they actually work. Also you may need it to communicate privately with you too... "Hey humane, add a meeting next Tuesday at 2pm'. "I’m sorry Dave, I'm afraid I can't do that. You have a doctors appointment about your haemeroids"
• ulrischa 3y ago
  As noted here: https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38208209 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38208209
• jacooper 3y ago
  700$ for a device I can't watch videos on, locked to one provider and has only first party Apps. An immediate flop there is no doubt about it.
  • macintux 3y ago
    2007 flashbacks.
    • jacooper 3y ago
      The iPhone offered new possibilities, what does this offer which we don't have in a better form currently? AI powered voice control? Always on camera?
      • macintux 3y ago
        I don’t disagree with you at all, but your assessment matches the iPhone’s general tech world reception precisely (if you swap out “video” with “Flash”), so much so that I thought you might have tailored it that way.
  • elxr 3y ago
    $700 buys a full PC I can use to code, browse the web, and run millions of desktop apps. It comes with a screen too. This thing has no business being $700.
    • themoonisachees 3y ago
      Don't forget about the $24/mo subscription :)
• zanderwohl 3y ago
  Does anyone remember the Cicret bracelet scam? This seems an exact copy of that, except now on your shirt.
  • deleted 3y ago
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• Zanni 3y ago
  This feels like the Kinect in that, if it works perfectly, seamlessly, responsively every time, it would be an amazing "the future is here now" gadget. But if it doesn't, it's just a tech demo with no real use. The pin form-factor is awkward. At least with a watch, you have watch functionality to fall back on, making it immediately useful, and you can discover incremental functionality--health, message, alerts, etc. This is all or nothing (and I think it's going to land closer to nothing).
• MikeBVaughn 3y ago
  What does it feel like when (critically, not 'if') it accidentally shines into your eye?
• koqoo 3y ago
  not sure about its future success, but the Voice Interface will be the new paradigm for sure.
• zffr 3y ago
  I'm surprised that the data plan is priced so high. For an Apple Watch, you can add it to your existing cell plan with unlimited data for as low as $10/mo
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• collsni 3y ago
  Does it know where your hand is? or do you have to put your hand in a certain spot?
  • owenpalmer 3y ago
    I was wondering the same thing
  • thebigman433 3y ago
    Almost certainly requires putting your hand in a specific spot for the projector
  • modeless 3y ago
    It has a depth camera and can certainly track your hand as long as it is within the field of view of the camera and projector, whatever that is. Edit: wow their tech specs are actually detailed. 125 degree FOV.
• seydor 3y ago
  Things you see in movies aren't meant to be made real. In movies, the pin is good for theatrical effect, because the actor recites his thoughts to the camera. There is no camera in real life, instead there is other people
  • ShamelessC 3y ago
    I’m curious what movie you’re referring to? Even in Her, Theo just puts his phone in his shirt pocket with the camera exposed so Samantha can see things.
    • conkeisterdoor 3y ago
      Correct me if I'm wrong GO, but I'm pretty sure he's referring to StarTrek, by comparing this pin to a combadge.
    • easton 3y ago
      Star Trek (TNG, but the other shows too) had badges they wore on their shirts as communicators. Helped for story telling, because as opposed to a phone, the com badge would play the other person’s audio loud for all to hear.
• mjhoy 3y ago
  In the video, they apparently didn't actually check up on the answer it gave about the next eclipse. The April 8 2024 total eclipse is best seen in North America. Exmouth Australia was where the April 20 2023 total eclipse occurred. https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-2024/ https://science.nasa.gov/eclipses/future-eclipses/eclipse-20...
  • dbish 3y ago
    Not to mention that voice based Q&A has been done by everyone at this point. Should have focused on the differentiators they have with that form factor.
• _jal 3y ago
  New categories of things to wear are really hard to get people to adapt without some instantly-compelling use case. I'm having trouble coming up with a mildly interesting use case for this. Get it to the point where it can constantly observe my surroundings and make the sort of suggestions a partner might ("if we stop at the hardware store first, we can get those fresh bagels Bob likes from the place that closes early", ) and maybe there's something to talk about.
  • schnable 3y ago
    Asking the price of vintage photos of a solar eclipse isn’t a killer use case for you?
  • notahacker 3y ago
    Real time translation and direction finding seem like the obvious use cases for an always on device attached to your chest, plus the standard Siri questions without having to grab a phone. Those are more niche than a phone, but big niches You just might have to deal with reactions to always on cameras and the annoyance of being admonished by LapelClippy on a regular basis
    • dbish 3y ago
      We know how the glasshole situation went :) Siri question type things I can use my watch for real time translation is neat but it has to be a big and frequent use case to differentiate from just taking my phone out and using google translate (which i believe i can also do on my apple watch).
      • notahacker 3y ago
        I think audio translation when it's quite close to real time will feel more natural without the phone in the hand than with it especially with a well functioning gesture interface, but yeah, there's nothing that stops a phone from doing it. Also agree this is more a smartwatch competitor than a phone competitor. The fact that smartwatches sell at all is proof there are (much smaller) markets for wearable devices that do stuff that can be done at least as well on a phone if you get it out your pocket, the argument for separating the powerful internet connected functionality from the watch and having it on some other wearable on your chest is that actually I like the wrist-mounted device that tracks my activity and sleep to not need charging every day...
• sam 3y ago
  This comment thread will go down in history along with the famous HN Dropbox thread. This thing is incredible and will eventually crush the iPhone. Solves iPhone addiction while retaining the utility of an iPhone? Solid gold.
  • crazygringo 3y ago
    The thing is, most people don't actually want to solve their phone addiction even if they say they do. In reality, they want to read news while waiting at a doctor's office, play games while they take the subway, and see Instagram updates from friends throughout the day. And if you already want a less capable device, it's called an Apple Watch, but it comes with a little screen that is way more useful than laser projection, and will soon surely have a powerful LLM it can access. (And paired with AirPods it does a much better job preserving your audio privacy.) So it's hard to see how this is going to succeed, when Apple can just copy the good part (LLM) as part of the Watch.
  • dbish 3y ago
    Apple watch? Cellular mode allows this, has siri built in, can handle calling/messaging/etc. People don't want to replace their phones though.
  • troupo 3y ago
    > along with the famous HN Dropbox thread. Most people saw the utility and the use cases of Dropbox even when it launched. What's the utility and use case of this? What problem does it solve?
  • killerdhmo 3y ago
    Maybe in the long term view - people correctly identifying that Dropbox had no differentiator (to quote Steve "this is a feature, not a product').
  • superluserdo 3y ago
    IMO "Solves iPhone addiction" is more or less a rephrasing of "people will quickly get bored of this". It's just a smartphone, except you can't run third-party software, can't directly interface with it, and can't connect it to other machines. And instead of holding an N-million pixel, M-million-colour, extremely high-constrast display directly in your hand, you have to indirectly project (meaning extremely LOW contrast) a single-colour display onto your hand from a projector that's shaking around being clipped to your clothes. The only single hypothetical upside I can see to this tech is that it might lower the two-second delay in looking at my phone caused by putting my hand in my pocket before raising my hand, but you could say that that goes against the goal of solving phone addiction.
• bee_rider 3y ago
  I think it looks quite neat. I dunno, maybe I played too many video games growing up, but the idea of UI that pops up when I need it in response to what’s in front of me seems cool as heck. But it designing that UI will be challenging, and just using something like this for texting and other cellphone tasks seems like a real waste. I have a similar feeling about augmented reality glasses.
  • verdverm 3y ago
    Having used the Hololens 2, I can say I definitely want smart glasses, but not the passthrough kind, the realview with projected holograms kind. It was/is an amazing experience. It's really a hardware miniaturization at this point, except that M$ canned the device and team to focus on other things. Really thought this was their opportunity to build a device that would dominate the market
    • bee_rider 3y ago
      I didn’t realize they were winding that all down. It seems like a shame, Apple is entering that market soon with a device that sounds like it’ll be the same price, and… I dunno, I’d expect the real vision advantage to be a pretty strong selling point.
      • verdverm 3y ago
        Yeah, I was disappointed by this move Fortunately, much like the HashiCorp hoopla, there is a group taking part of the project forward in an independent org. I'm looking to deploy an MRTK demo to the Q3, hoping Immersed will pick it up for the next iteration of their app
    • themoonisachees 3y ago
      Unfortunately Microsoft won't bring it to market (and tbh I didn't think they would be the ones to do it anyway) but the idea is there and they've contributed a lot to the tech. Maybe this is going to be like the virtual boy, we're gonna have to wait 20 more years before the tech is viable and someone decides to make the thing.
• nameless912 3y ago
  This is literally an episode of Big Mouth. I cannot believe this exists.
• animal_spirits 3y ago
  I can't see this going anywhere. It won't work as soon as you need to put a jacket on for rain or cold weather.
  • ipsum2 3y ago
    Clip it to the outside of your jacket?
• mempko 3y ago
  I just watched the Humane video about their AI pin. My wife said it's too boring to watch and my thought was 'wow, this guy doing the presentation is also bored'. There has been a shortage of ADHD medication because people are taking it as an enhancement drug (tech folks do it a lot) and people who need it aren't getting it. My wife can't get hers, it sucks. I told her 'I guess everyone in tech is also short on ADHD medication now'. ;-)
  • dbish 3y ago
    Seems like a design choice but it was odd. Both people didn't smile and seemed bored as you say. A bit odd, maybe tied to their like of things like Fashion Week where it's more of a serious look then a happy one
• mempko 3y ago
  The problem with ditching the screen is that people genuinely love reading. Vast majority of my time in the day is spent reading, either on screen or paper. The product with the most variety is books, by a long shot. They are making a device to replace the screen, yet the screen is a rich source of information! People love screens! Screens can present information non-linearly and also interactively. While voice and sound is always linear. And yes, this thing has a display, but it's low fidelity and cumbersome.
• ChicagoBoy11 3y ago
  Between things like the Apple watch, and the upcoming glasses-based interfaces, this seems to kinda do nothing well and some of those things, just more poorly. It's beautiful, definitely interesting, but seems pretty dead in the water. The MIT wearable demo from a few years ago which used a similar concept to project an interface in the real world was incredibly compelling, but mostly because it assumed near flawless real world AI object recognition, along with flawless projection onto said items. They'll need to demonstrate this on this particular device, before this becomes remotely interesting. Yes, it's a "detail", but I think for a lot of this kind of tech, demonstrating just how DEEPLY you can go into the interactions is sort of the whole point if they are thinking of replacing the kinds of devices that we depend on.
  • make3 3y ago
    People have proved that they're willing to go far to make tech lighter. Wearing glasses when you can just wear nothing seems like a big progress to me. The only thing that remains is to make it look better imho
    • troupo 3y ago
      There's always physics. You can't make batteries out of nothing.
      • perryizgr8 3y ago
        > You can't make batteries out of nothing. We can always discover new physics, or utilise already understood physics to design something more efficient. Like what if your phone was efficient enough that it could work only on the heat given off from your hands and/or ambient light? Sounds far-fetched but I won't be surprised if this is commonplace within the next 50 years.
• Whooping7116 3y ago
  No thanks, I'll stick with my Cicret Bracelet.
  • arrow7000 3y ago
    For its beautiful white on black projector display
• ahmedontia 3y ago
  Can't help but think this is dead on arrival, wearable tech doesn't have a good track record. Imagine talking to someone while they're wearing this (sans translation feature), frustrating to say the least. I imagine the adjustment is too steep a curve for people to adopt this comfortably. That said, I hope they keep pushing, I guess.
• comment_ran 3y ago
  I was thinking about a use case for this device. First thing, it's about water resistance. Is this waterproof? So I'm thinking about its relation to, let's say, a smart glass you have. I mean, they both can take a picture on camera. They can both understand your voice. You can use it as a microphone. So what's the thing that a smart glass is not able to provide?
  • pzo 3y ago
    Current smart glasses (like those AR glases from Meta) doesn't provide any screen output. Also not everyone want to wear glasses (and many that do need prefer contact lenses). But I agree with your point that some combination of Apple Watch, AirPods, Meta AR could provide a better experience and probably future AR glasses will have better display technologies. I wish though pico projectors got more maintstream in devices such as laptops, tablets - there could be many useful applications for indie devs.
• lyair1 3y ago
  It'e amazing, years of development, and at no point of time anyone stopped and asked: "what problem are we solving here?"
• king_magic 3y ago
  Oof. Looks like a huge UX miss to me at best, and a worse version of Google Glass at worst.
• kleiba 3y ago
  Surprised to see all the negative sentiment here. Besides the true point that voice-only interaction is a bad idea for public spaces, I think this is a very cool device with lots of potential. I'm especially excited about the fact that they found a really low-barrier user interface for using CV and AR-type functionality -- like, without having to put on silly glasses, and without having to use a second device with a screen in addition to the pin. Come on, this is cool! Or would you have designed (and built!) a better device?
  • omginternets 3y ago
    I think a lot of us are coming down from the high of buying expensive surveillance devices.
  • verdverm 3y ago
    Could you use this effectively while moving? Is the device going to jostle about? Can you keep your hand that steady (in relation to the projection)? Can you do this while standing, slouching in a chair, walking, and/or riding in a vehicle? Could you use it discretely, like in a meeting or waiting room?
    • kleiba 3y ago
      Probably yes to some of these questions and no to some others. But why only focus on some potential shortcomings instead of appreciating the positive aspects? Btw, there is no tech device out there for which I couldn't come up with a list of critical questions like yours.
      • verdverm 3y ago
        What are the positive aspects? I don't see any, this looks terrible to me, a waste of money for both investors and consumers I'm limiting my points to the physical usage concerns, there are more concerns if we broaden the context, many other commenters have pointed them out. This is not even the full list of physical concerns. What people wear will have a big impact too
• frou_dh 3y ago
  The projection onto the hand is just straight up neat. I'm not going to buy this device, but do look forward to using that paradigm at some point in the future.
• jv22222 3y ago
  To monetize v1 could focus on the single purpose of tracking nutrition. If it somehow could estimate input / output and keep you on task, maybe nudging you to walk. Like a personal trainer on your shoulder all the time.
  • callalex 3y ago
    Well in their video demo they got the nutrition information completely wrong, so clearly the tech isn’t capable of doing that even in a controlled environment.
• crooked-v 3y ago
  > Photography was not allowed during WIRED’s visit to Humane, and the company didn’t provide WIRED a Pin to try. Clearly very confident in their product.
• catchnear4321 3y ago
  finally, a plausible contender for the mark of the beast. impractical, but it could be made mandatory without too much arm twisting.
• mocmoc 3y ago
  Love it
• Kim_Bruning 3y ago
  In both firefox and chrome I get a big page with a single picture on it. Navigation was non-obvious. Full-screen pages even at UHD. Firefox Readability couldn't gather enough data to provide a summary. When asked to provide a summary, phind.com hung for over a minute and didn't return a reply. You know what, I just don't think I'm the target audience for whatever this site is trying to sell.
  • callalex 3y ago
    The website is seriously unusable. I was genuinely interested in learning about this just because it’s novel and creative, but every time I scroll the website on my iPhone it flings past several sentences then comes to rest with half-obscured sentences. It was so frustrating compared to a bullet list or slideshow that I just gave up and left.
• cududa 3y ago
  I counted 14 almonds in the video. It said there were 15 grams of protein in the almonds. Almonds have about a quarter gram of protein each. Also, you can't view the total eclipse in either locations it stated.
  • papa_bear 3y ago
    Yeah that stood out to me, would need ~60 almonds to have that much protein. A screen would be useful for showing the details of how it misestimated the almond count, and let you adjust them.
  • gs17 3y ago
    That's a big part of the issue to me as well, it's not going to be reliable. The dragonfruit example is correct, but I can't imagine it being accurate when it's not "single whole objects of average size that are in the USDA nutrition database". Pretty scary if you try to rely on it for something like translation.
    • paulcole 3y ago
      The dragonfruit example is wrong. > How much sugar is in this? > A whole dragonfruit contains 7.31 grams of sugar. 100 grams of dragonfruit contains 9.75 grams of sugar. https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/2344729/nutrients https://fdc.nal.usda.gov/fdc-app.html#/food-details/2344729/... A whole dragonfruit weighs closer to 350-600 grams. https://www.seedsdelmundo.com/blog/average-dragon-fruit-weight/ https://www.seedsdelmundo.com/blog/average-dragon-fruit-weig...
      • gs17 3y ago
        The link you posted has "1 fruit" as an option listed as 75g. Which does seem light, but it's at least an actual source for the number it used instead of a hallucination like the eclipse thing.
• dcchambers 3y ago
  The general public is being mislead on LLMs/AI and it's dangerous. These are indeterminate systems. We CAN NOT know what they are going to output. A product like this makes it very difficult to verify what it is telling you. As others have pointed out, their own product launch video has several inaccuracies in it.
  • tarr11 3y ago
    Isn't this just the Halting problem? No software has the property of being "determinate".
    • perryizgr8 3y ago
      I dunno man. I can guarantee that this program will either not run or output "Hello world" on your screen: #include <iostream> int main() { std::cout << "Hello world"; return 0; } Seems like you can determine for some programs what they will do.
      • herman-rogers 3y ago
        Yes we can determine that but the idea of the halting problem is that there is no general algorithm that can determine if a program will halt or not. So if we're including the human mind as the algorithm, then there exists a program that we cannot determine if it will halt or not. Theoretically.
    • RamblingCTO 3y ago
      Termination != deterministic
  • marysnovirgin 3y ago
    But, but, AI is just a tool!!! No, it's not. If something else is making decisions for you, you're the tool.
• natch 3y ago
  DOA. - too stealable, by people who will not care that a subscription is needed. - the act of theft will happen violently and close up, not fun. - it's an easy smallish act of violence, which means the on-ramp to violence is also easy. Not something most people want to invite into their lives. - "they" (the Committee) will say phones can also be grabbed. But the equation here is different. With a phone there's no hand on your chest, no tearing of clothing, and for a phone thieves know you will try harder to get it back. With this, after the violent taking, the shock value and the relative disposability of the device will stop most from chasing the thief. This will be known subconsciously if not outright, so the "phones are also easy to grab" comparison does not apply. - the features are already provided by something most everyone has, a smartphone. - the level of obnoxiousness of the status signaling is off the charts. - association with AI is not a positive for many people and is stigmatizing (whether the stigma is correct or not). - built in camera and recording functionality or even the perceived possibility of recording is also stigmatizing and highly antisocial. - all the voice UX inhibition concerns others have been mentioning. - [edit, how did I leave this out, but it's just too obvious]: subscription. We. Don't. Want. More. Subscriptions. On the positive side, the size is nice, it looks good, and reading stuff off your hand is a cool idea, although it will look pretty goofy. But no.
  • troupo 3y ago
    > too stealable, by people who will not care that a subscription is needed. I even doubt there will be much theft of these. People will simply forget these, and stop using them. So they showed one clipped to a jacket. Don't they take the jacket off? What's the intended usecase? That you take it off and re-attach to various clothign as you dress/undress? It also looks quite heavy, so most T-shirts and other light items of clothing are not really suitable for this.
    • natch 3y ago
      Yep that’s a good point! And they really doubled down on that decision by also embedding it (“pin”) in the name, if not the identity, of the product. They could have coined a word (I’m not claiming this is not cringe) “pindant” as in a dual use pin-or-pendant item, and bought more flexibility, for example. Edit: somebody already coined that word, see the dot com (sfw), lol.
• deleted 3y ago
  [deleted]
• markcollin 3y ago
  I liked the demo actually. But it's scary that they would have access to all personal details. But then Google already has access to all my data - via Gmail and my phone (android) Humane clearly appears to be a category creator in the making
• tobiasbischoff 3y ago
  No one wants to talk to a computer in the public. How could they missed that after all these dump voice assistants like siri and alexa. No one want to capture photos without directly checking them afterwards. This is so out of place.
• maranathapemje 3y ago
  I think they missed the opportunity to make this a smartphone. Humans are obsessed with their screens, and taking away the visual appeal of a smartphone is questionable. Although the target audience may be people who are actively trying to use fewer screens so, owning this alongside an iPad could work for some people.
  • umeshunni 3y ago
    I disagree. Smartphones are very entrenched and a personal fashion statement in some ways. It's near impossible to get even a basis point marketshare in the global smartphone market. A wearable form factor is the right approach, though a pin feels like a weird choice - as opposed to a watch, earbuds, glasses etc.
• Osmium 3y ago
  For all the reasons that this might not take off, what a thrill that people are trying something new--and it looks really nicely designed too. I think this is easy to dismiss at first glance, but I genuinely believe they're trying to think about a new mode of interaction. The idea that "the computer will disappear" is probably accurate in the long term. Except for content delivery (reading, photos, movies), most tasks we achieve via computers and phones do not strictly require a screen. It's probably a good thing if computers did a better job of getting out of the way, and stop so loudly disrupting human interactions. Whether this will be the solution is unclear; the privacy/creepiness angle is still real with an outwards-facing camera. Latency and battery life limitations might be too significant. The cost will be a non-starter for many (it is for me). But I'm still impressed because there was a vision here. The conversational interface has never worked before for many reasons, but that does not mean it cannot work in principle, or that the ideal implementation would not be spellbinding. I'm glad they're trying. Also, the laser display is neat!
  • dj_gitmo 3y ago
    I agree. This looks like a gadget, which means I probably won't rush to buy one, but I'm glad people are trying to push the envelope.
  • Aperocky 3y ago
    > most tasks we achieve via computers and phones do not strictly require a screen. X (doubt). There are unfortunately only 5 senses that our brains can interact with the outside world, and visual ways are the most information dense and the easiest to utilize. The screen isn't going away anytime soon. Projector to me are same as screen - they've been around for as long too. Though I do look forward to direct computer-brain interface, like introducing a 6th sense.
    • TylerE 3y ago
      The 5 senses thing is long-disproven rubbish. Humans have hundreds of senses.
      • 3y ago
• 908087 3y ago
  [dead]
• bitsoda 3y ago
  This will absolutely be a commercial failure. I don't harbor any ill will to anybody in the company, and I wish them the best, but a voice interface in public is a complete non-starter. What is the use-case for this device for which a comparably-priced smartphone isn't better...much better? The only real distinguishing feature this thing has over a smartphone is projection, and even that doesn't seem too difficult to tack onto future models. Once the AI Pin replies with a "sorry, couldn't get that" a few times, people will give up on it and reach for their phones. I could see it finding some success in the accessibility market, but outside of niche applications, I don't think this thing sticks around.
  • blueridge 3y ago
    "...a voice interface in public is a complete non-starter." As I sit in a crowded coffee shop at a shared table, with three people who are on meetings and talking away about sensitive things. Right next to one another! Along the wall there are two people chatting on their phones to family, one of them on speaker. People don't care, they don't have manners.
    • ShamelessC 3y ago
      I think what you want is a public library. Or some headphones.
    • goalonetwo 3y ago
      Once in a while I catch up with friends in a coffee shop and I usually get some death stares from those remote laptop workers. A coffee shop is NOT supposed to be quiet. If you want quietness go to a library.
    • yunohn 3y ago
      That’s actually a great test - can it be used effectively when there’s ambient noise?
• what-no-tests 3y ago
  Great website! It looks wonderful on my powerful new Mac. Also, I like how the focus appears to be on how it will benefit the user, instead of focusing on tech specs. Data privacy and personal security aside, I understand there will be a reciprocal action between lifestyle and technology. We might have to change our lifestyle to make room for and benefit from new technology tools, just as we have for smart phones. If kids get interested in it, then it will have a chance. If it's cool and fun, then it has a chance. If it actually makes things easier and better, then it could take off. But if it has that cringe factor like google glass had, then it will never get anywhere. The possibilities are awesome, but something like this requires a reinforcing feedback loop on top of a network effect to become successful.
• hokkos 3y ago
  What I find the most interesting is the battery booster idea, there seems to be a mini battery inside the main computer part (to allow hot swapping of the booster), and the booster attach magnetically on the opposite side of the garment to bring the main source of power wirelessly. I would have loved this idea of battery hot swapping when smartphone used to have very poor battery, and it can makes product more durable because it is extremely simple to change the battery.
  • ShamelessC 3y ago
    This is mostly achieved already thanks to the magnetic wireless charging standard found in many new phones and all the Apple ones. Replaceable internal batteries is still largely unavailable, but at least you can bolster the internal one and the same way as this pin.
• demarq 3y ago
  That subscription is priceeeey, the responses in the demo were off. However those are things that can change. So I don't worry about that. The form factor is innovative, and the laser display (which they didn't lean into) is very cool!
• magicsmoke33 3y ago
  Trying to play the linked video just crashes the page on MobileSafari, but I found their presentation on Youtube. It’s almost as if they held their two most apathetic employees at gunpoint in a laboratory. Safe to say I’ve never seen that level of ennui in any startup’s presentation before.
  • gizajob 3y ago
    Aren’t they the founders? It did strike me that already a minute in and they were bored with what they had to say about the product, like they’d already watched their lifetime’s share of Apple demos. At least when the Segway was launched we had weeks of building OMFG!!! hype around how it was going to be the worlds most radical new transportation device. Even the presenters of the hu.ma.ne website seem like they’re riddled with ennui, as you say, or just unenthused with presenting. It in no way seemed like the launch of a game changing new device. Plus, referring to their website, has anyone in history had cause to ask an AI assistant “how much is a vintage photograph of an eclipse going for?” like seriously?? And using this device as a speaker while roller skating in a city? I couldn’t even hear my iPhone Pro Max on full volume in an environment like that. Unless this device is phenomenally good and responsive, it’s going to flop so so hard in so many ways. People’s tolerance for latency and inaccuracy is low.
• bilsbie 3y ago
  Does this run an LLM on device?
• gizajob 3y ago
  Haha in the demo he asks "when is the next solar eclipse and where is the best place to see it?" - The AI responds correctly that it's on April the 8th 2024, but then clearly hallucinates like crazy and says "the best places to see it are in Exmouth, Australia and East Timor" which is totally incorrect - this eclipse will be visible only in North America, and invisible in Australia and East Timor. Good job he didn't ask it to book flights to Australia on the 7th of April. You'd think your tech demo would check to see if your AI was hallucinating!
  • chdefrene 3y ago
    Google received significant backlash for this when demoing Bard: https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64576225 https://www.bbc.com/news/business-64576225
  • yunohn 3y ago
    Yep, the eclipse answer was incorrect (1). You’d think they’d have learned their lesson after Google Bard’s hallucinated demo! (1) https://www.space.com/33784-solar-eclipse-guide.html https://www.space.com/33784-solar-eclipse-guide.html
    • simonsarris 3y ago
      this is aside but I really don't think you need to use a footnote if your comment is two sentences and a link
      • yunohn 3y ago
        I was also gonna link to the Bard article, but was lazy.
      • savanaly 3y ago
        I appreciate it and do it myself. If HN supported hyperlinks of our words the way html does we could just do that, but footnotes are the next best thing. Big unreadable links in the middle of what you're saying, even just one sentence, muddy the message.
• dang 3y ago
  Related ongoing thread: The Humane AI Pin Launches Its Campaign to Replace Phones - https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38207656 https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=38207656 - Nov 2023 (130 comments)
• gs17 3y ago
  > there are no wake words, so it's not always listening [...] it doesn't do anything until you engage with it, and your engagement comes through your voice, touch, gesture, or laser ink display I'm guessing they mean a combination, so you need to touch AND do something else. But taken literally the gesture option implies they're also always watching. > if it's ever physically tampered with, it will require service from Humane to restore operation So it's entirely non-repairable? -- I also love the "you can shop in the real world" example where they imply the scenario is him going into a physical bookstore (they say "retail") and yell out that you're looking up if it's cheaper online and buying it there.
• ge96 3y ago
  I remember version 1 of this thing, Sixth Sense
• rpmisms 3y ago
  Maybe this is simply getting older, but this feels gross. I don't want my technology to feel this opaque. The form factor is a little silly, too. Why not a smartwatch? Tech like this produces glassholes.
• superluserdo 3y ago
  The "laser ink display" looks a bit like the totally bunk display tech of the Cicret Bracelet "product" that VFX videomaker Captain Disillusion did a comprehensive takedown of a couple of years ago https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbgvSi35n6o https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KbgvSi35n6o. While it looks like there are a few videos of apparent actual demos, I haven't seen one yet where the device (and more importantly, the recording camera's settings) are controlled by an impartial reviewer, and I'm extremely sceptical that this is usable in the real world. There's a demo by the founder where one of the inputs is to tilt your palm up, and even in the demo the projection struggles to compete with the indoor lights, nevermind the sun https://youtu.be/CwSeUV3RaIA?t=205 https://youtu.be/CwSeUV3RaIA?t=205. The pitch of this seems to be "no more distracting screens, and no need to download and manage lots of apps and services". Except there is a (very poor) screen, it's your hand. And you're limited to just one service and set of apps, the one that comes with the device. It's all well and good saying that the AI can do everything you want, but the real world (sadly) has copyright restrictions and content licensing agreements which an out-of-the-box service by a legit company will have to abide by. If the song I want to listen to isn't available on whatever music service this product is partnered with, could I transfer music files from my computer to this device? There's a lot of use cases like this where you very quickly start to want an actual screen, and actual methods of input more precise and domain-specific than conversational voice commands.
  • pcchristie 3y ago
    > If the song I want to listen to isn't available on whatever music service this product is partnered with, could I transfer music files from my computer to this device? What a weird example. They say they've partnered with Tidal, which would have 999 out of 1000 songs people look for, maybe more.
    • bmicraft 3y ago
      Even Spotify is missing probably more than 5% of what I'm looking for, which makes me strongly doubt that claim.
  • fn-mote 3y ago
• hm-nah 3y ago
  Member’ the data broker character in Snowcrash?
• tamimio 3y ago
  No info on the battery life, and about the possibility of replacing it, all I know you are getting a 2-years at best obsolete device like airpods, also, very gimmicky.
• modeless 3y ago
  I think this is a cool concept. I can't imagine ever using it with the latency demonstrated in their video. If I was in charge I'd be chanting "latency, latency, latency" like Ballmer or something. I think the Meta Ray-Ban glasses are probably a better concept even without a screen just because of the better placement of the audio and camera. But I'm glad people are trying different things.
• yarsanich 3y ago
  Creating this is a very bold move, regardless of success or failure. The noise it generates draws attention to potential alternatives in how we interact with our devices. Talking about alternatives often leads to mere concern and agreement without action. Presenting an actual alternative, however, deserves respect. Yet, there's a hint of skepticism in my appreciation. Why the 'AI' pin? The constant mention of 'AI' arouses suspicion about the product, recalling a time when 'AI' was not a part of their lexicon. Nonetheless, I wish them good luck with "AI" pin.
• webkike 3y ago
  I feel more people than not in this thread like this, so let me say my contrarian point of view: more muggable than a "I heart NYC" t-shirt
• fumeux_fume 3y ago
  Sorry, try again. The fact that the company is called "Humane" should be sign enough to tear it off your person, smash with hammer and burn.
• personjerry 3y ago
  Anywhere outside silicon valley and this is pay several hundred dollars to get ostracized
• tambourine_man 3y ago
  I think the product is a failure, but the website is gorgeous.
• precompute 3y ago
  Glorified API wrapper with a shiny light for posers.
• 1970-01-01 3y ago
  This looks like a technology that will sell the 2nd or 3rd time it gets revived. Its an Apple Newton, and we all want an iPhone.
• yalogin 3y ago
  I appreciate the effort but the interface is terrible. Voice is a terrible way to interact and get things done. Same with the pinching and hand based projection. It’s a bit better than voice but still not good. I don’t know what to make of it. It’s a good idea and people may buy it but it won’t stick
• yalogin 3y ago
  I think input is very much solved at this point. We have reached peak efficiency and peak usability with the touch screen and pinch on the mobile. Anything else is regression at this point and will not stick
  • perryizgr8 3y ago
    I agree. The best voice input will not replace screens. I think the next frontier has to be some sort of neural/retinal display that sends info directly to your brain.
• mark_l_watson 3y ago
  I signed up a long time ago to be on the AI Pin info mailing list, so interesting to see it almost shipping. I salute efforts to develop alternative computing devices, interfaces, and ways to interact. I have been using my Apple Watch in an ‘only device carried with me’ mode, unless I will be wanting to take pictures or read an eBook when I am out of my house. As someone who has been using computers since about 1964, it is so refreshing to just have minimal connectivity - this helps being more present in the world. I would love to be able to fast-forward and see how devices like the AI Pin do commercially in the next 5 years. How many people are like me and want to digitally disconnect, except for communicating with family or close friends? I would bet we are in a small minority. Not having any third party apps is painful. No audio books, or podcasts? I get those on my Apple Watch used with AirPods. Anyway, I wish this company well!
• thomastjeffery 3y ago
  Can I have the hand-tracking laser projector and nothing else?
• LouisSayers 3y ago
  The most impressive thing about this is that it has managed to get funded... I mean, has any skater ever thought "I want to listen to a hip hop playlist that mentions skating" - as someone into extreme sports I highly doubt this has ever been on a skaters mind. And how many people are walking around thinking they want a picture of a solar eclipse?! The device and its marketed use cases just seem so ridiculous, it honestly blows my mind that this thing exists.
  • l33tman 3y ago
    To be fair the use-cases in Apple's Vision Pro release were equally misguided. Like the dystopic one where the father has this gigantic hockey mask on his face when asking his kid to blow out the birthday candles. Or the girl packing her clothes in a bag while CASUALLY wearing the face torture device so she conveniently can then receive a video call that she just has to take right then in video mode.
• mvkel 3y ago
  The software is what will determine if it succeeds or fails, and it's clear from the "demos" that the software is nowhere near production ready (or exists at all)
• kazinator 3y ago
  > Operating Temperatures 5°C to 35°C LOL. Not made for this planet. Heck, put a jacket over it and your body heat could take it over 35.
  • jen20 3y ago
    I hadn't noticed this part, that is interesting. It was outside of that range (at the high end) for 70+ days this year in Texas, and no doubt come February it will be outside in the other direction too.
    • kazinator 3y ago
      I wouldn't be surprised if the device goes over 35 during charging, when the ambient temp is well below that.
  • dbbk 3y ago
    That's insane. So in a British winter your expensive, subscription-only phone replacement... just doesn't work?
    • kazinator 3y ago
      It probably works, but temperature could be used as an excuse should anything not work. "Undefined behavior" and all that.
• wly_cdgr 3y ago
  The future is even more horrifyingly bland and dystopian than imagined by our best cyberpunk writers
• kazinator 3y ago
  The only way that any "pin" of this type will make it is if it is actually a peripheral that connects to a phone. That's what this thing wants to be. A camera/speaker/microphone/laser box that you wear. It gives you answers or short messages on the palm of your hand. Want to see pictures you recently took with it? Whip out the phone. You will not separate people from video calling and media consumption, sorry. But imagine you had this as a peripheral for your phone. You could be on a call with someone, face to face, and then say, "hey, I will take you for a walk". Switch to the pin's camera and keep talking while your friend now sees more or less what you see as you walk around.
• devdiary 3y ago
  I doubt it will be a huge success but this sparks interesting thoughts - how to put all these things on such a tiny board and power it up with a tiny Li battery. How to build it at home? FEMTO-ITX seems like the smallest motherboard to get started with. Is there a better/smaller alternative?
• matthewfelgate 3y ago
  It's a no from me.
• asimpleusecase 3y ago
  They clearly got the shape wrong. It’s supposed to be like a Metallic A , with a gold oval behind it.
• crakhamster01 3y ago
  I see a market for this, though I don't think this iteration of the product will succeed. I know a handful of folks that would love to have a replacement for their phone - something less bulky that they can carry around in place of their phone, that still accomplishes most things a phone would. Most recently I heard of people trying this with the Apple Watch Ultra, and ultimately giving up on it. This Humane pin seems even less capable? It seems like a great attempt though. I'm excited to see some new innovation in this space!
• ouraf 3y ago
  It doesn't need to compete with smartphones IMO. The best use case i can see for a device like this a hands free recording and support for law enforcement, rescue and emergency teams. Imagine a paramedic recording all the info about the victim of a car accident and being able to project relevant information or questions on the asphalt or any other surface at night. The rescue crew would have both hands free to stabilize the victim, maybe even get the victim's medical history without having to stop everything to type on a smartphone or tablet.
• dlutcat 3y ago
  I was dreaming of a device that could record everything I said and saw throughout my life. These records would then be used to train a language model, effectively creating a digital version of myself. After I pass away, this digital version could serve as an eternal companion for my daughter, allowing her to converse with me whenever she pleases. So far I can do that with RAG using my tweets and articles, but it's not sufficient; I need to incorporate my ongoing real-life experiences into the model. This relies on advancements in battery technology and compression algorithms.
• sanroot99 3y ago
  Site load really slow in Firefox
• sanroot99 3y ago
  Site is suffering hn hug of death, I guess
• elicksaur 3y ago
  fwiw asking Siri: “When is the next solar eclipse and where is the best place to watch it?” Returns actually relevant and accurate results from the web. “How many grams of protein are in a handful of almonds?” Returns “7” with a citation link which is closer to being correct. Hard to compare apples to apples on this one since Siri doesn’t have a camera, but the Pin demo is very obviously wrong.