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> Why wouldn't the device just be your ear buds connected to your phone? Because nobody will realistically wear ear buds for long periods of time. This tech ne

by imiric 3y ago

> Why wouldn't the device just be your ear buds connected to your phone? Because nobody will realistically wear ear buds for long periods of time. This tech needs to be entirely unobtrusive if the goal is to blend in with our lives 24/7, and we're heading in that direction, for better or worse. > I'm still deeply skeptical on voice driven tech as we have had that available and easy to use from various devices for over a decade now and it hasn't taken off for tons of reasons. Voice recognition has only gotten _really_ good in the past couple of years, with the advent of LLMs. E.g. Whisper, etc. This is enough of a generational leap to transform how much we rely on the tech. > I just am not going to have a conversation with my computer with others around. Honestly, I can't imagine myself doing that either. But if you think of a scenario where the tech is so good that it understands your intent from short commands, with 100% accuracy, in every type of environment, then it's not so farfetched. Especially once everyone else starts doing it, it will seem as normal as people interacting with screens is today. I don't think we'll hold long conversations with AI in public, or around others. Just as some people avoid doing that with humans today. But for short interactions like "record this moment", or "remind me to ...", it certainly seems plausible. The device doesn't even need to respond back. It should be reliable enough that you're always sure it understood you. But we'll certainly hold long conversations with AI in private. For collaboration, companionship, etc. In either scenario, a smartphone or smartwatch are just not the devices that will deliver that experience.

mulderc 3y ago
People already wear earbuds all day. Go to any college campus and tons of those kids never take them out, even when taking with each other. Lots of people at work keep them in most of the day. I am pretty sure I wear my AirPods Pro more than I wear my glasses. Voice recognition is already really good but people barely use what their devices can already do. For these short interactions you are talking about, our phones can already do this and people rarely use it. Our home assistants can already do much of what you are talking about and uptake has been abysmal because people don't like it. The smart phone and smartwatch paired with earbuds already does what you are wanting. Hell the HomePod/alexa/google home already do much of what you are taking about and people don’t use it.
- imiric 3y ago
  > People already wear earbuds all day. Those are outliers, not representations of something most people would do. And even within that population, do they really wear them for 12+ hours straight? While driving, in class, etc.? I doubt it. The reality is that no gadget that you put inside or over your ear will be as comfortable for long periods of time as something you wear on your clothes, or around your neck. I keep mentioning the word "unobtrusive", but this aspect is critical for mass adoption. > For these short interactions you are talking about, our phones can already do this and people rarely use it. The voice recognition accuracy and, more importantly, the actions you can do with it on current gen devices is not generally useful for many people. But this will improve. I mentioned use cases that I can (poorly) imagine, but once the tech is 100% reliable, there will be many others that we can't think of today. The Rabbit demo seems fake partly because some of these scenarios are far fetched, but there will be a time when it will seem normal. Just like we couldn't imagine what smartphone apps would enable us to do in, say, 2005. > Our home assistants can already do much of what you are talking about and uptake has been abysmal because people don't like it. This is another category of devices. A speaker with microphones you put on your desk in one room is not a personal device. And many people, myself included, don't feel comfortable with a device built by a corporation that profits from personal data always listening, but I think that will change as well. And we'll have entirely self-hosted and open source alternatives for the privacy conscious as well. Though I still think smart speakers, earbuds, smartphones and smartwatches will also see improvements, and become more useful as voice recognition and what it enables us to do becomes better. But these are not personal or unobtrusive enough to become deeply embedded in our daily lives. Wearable tech together with highly accurate voice recognition as an interface to AI assistants that know our preferences on a deep level, and are integrated with many of the same services we use today, sure seems like an improvement over any current gen "smart" gadget.
  - mulderc 3y ago
    You do know that things like hearing aids exist right?
  - vunderba 3y ago
    In what world is some thing you wear around your neck less obtrusive than a smart watch alone? Know what people used to wear before the advent of phones on their wrists all day long? Hint: it rhymes with swatches. I frequently wear a single earbud (since I don't really require stereo) for upwards of 4 to 8 hours a day, often forgetting that it's even there. Look up sensory adaptation. Theoretically, everything the rabbit could do - a self-contained smartwatch could do and unlike the rabbit it wouldn't be an extra "slab" that I have to lug around in addition to my smartphone.

by imiric 3y ago

mulderc 3y ago

People already wear earbuds all day. Go to any college campus and tons of those kids never take them out, even when taking with each other. Lots of people at work keep them in most of the day. I am pretty sure I wear my AirPods Pro more than I wear my glasses. Voice recognition is already really good but people barely use what their devices can already do. For these short interactions you are talking about, our phones can already do this and people rarely use it. Our home assistants can already do much of what you are talking about and uptake has been abysmal because people don't like it. The smart phone and smartwatch paired with earbuds already does what you are wanting. Hell the HomePod/alexa/google home already do much of what you are taking about and people don’t use it.

imiric 3y ago
> People already wear earbuds all day. Those are outliers, not representations of something most people would do. And even within that population, do they really wear them for 12+ hours straight? While driving, in class, etc.? I doubt it. The reality is that no gadget that you put inside or over your ear will be as comfortable for long periods of time as something you wear on your clothes, or around your neck. I keep mentioning the word "unobtrusive", but this aspect is critical for mass adoption. > For these short interactions you are talking about, our phones can already do this and people rarely use it. The voice recognition accuracy and, more importantly, the actions you can do with it on current gen devices is not generally useful for many people. But this will improve. I mentioned use cases that I can (poorly) imagine, but once the tech is 100% reliable, there will be many others that we can't think of today. The Rabbit demo seems fake partly because some of these scenarios are far fetched, but there will be a time when it will seem normal. Just like we couldn't imagine what smartphone apps would enable us to do in, say, 2005. > Our home assistants can already do much of what you are talking about and uptake has been abysmal because people don't like it. This is another category of devices. A speaker with microphones you put on your desk in one room is not a personal device. And many people, myself included, don't feel comfortable with a device built by a corporation that profits from personal data always listening, but I think that will change as well. And we'll have entirely self-hosted and open source alternatives for the privacy conscious as well. Though I still think smart speakers, earbuds, smartphones and smartwatches will also see improvements, and become more useful as voice recognition and what it enables us to do becomes better. But these are not personal or unobtrusive enough to become deeply embedded in our daily lives. Wearable tech together with highly accurate voice recognition as an interface to AI assistants that know our preferences on a deep level, and are integrated with many of the same services we use today, sure seems like an improvement over any current gen "smart" gadget.
- mulderc 3y ago
  You do know that things like hearing aids exist right?
- vunderba 3y ago
  In what world is some thing you wear around your neck less obtrusive than a smart watch alone? Know what people used to wear before the advent of phones on their wrists all day long? Hint: it rhymes with swatches. I frequently wear a single earbud (since I don't really require stereo) for upwards of 4 to 8 hours a day, often forgetting that it's even there. Look up sensory adaptation. Theoretically, everything the rabbit could do - a self-contained smartwatch could do and unlike the rabbit it wouldn't be an extra "slab" that I have to lug around in addition to my smartphone.