Smartphones have used more or less the same rectangular shape since their first appearance in 1972. You look at the screen and put it up to your face. But Ai Pin—a novel, supposedly wearable, AI-powered device threatens to upend the paradigm.
While demonstrations have been impressive, using it in real-life would be a nightmare. Here’s why.
What We Know About Humane’s Ai Pin
Although Humane only named its new device in anofficial blog poston June 30th, 2023, it was first demonstrated on May 9th at a TED talk by Humane founder and former Apple designer Imran Chaudhri.
During the demo, Chaudhri was able to ask questions and receive location-specific answers, translate into French (with the translation using his own voice), take calls, and have a display projected onto his hand.
Operated largely by voice, it can do everything you’d expect of Alexa or Google Assistant, including intelligently managing your diary.
While it’s certainly a neat idea, Humane’s Ai Pin has some drawbacks.
1. You Have to Stay Still to Use the Interface
Ai Pin projects visuals onto a surface. Chaudhri’s Ai Pin poked from his breast pocket in the demo, and messages appeared on his hand.
If you’ve everset up a projector in your own home, you’ll already know that you need to position the device a certain distance from the screen, or else the display will be unusably blurry. While you’re able to fine-tune the focus of a desktop projector, there doesn’t seem to be any way of finessing the focus on the Ai Pin.
If you decide to project messages onto your hand, you’ll need to keep it in front of you at an exact distance from the Pin. You’ll also need to keep it stationary relative to the device, lest your text messages appear smudged across the person in front of you. It’s not ideal when you’re walking around town.
Of course, you can avoid this problem by standing two feet away from a plain wall and projecting onto the surface, but you may attract strange looks.
2. The Ai Pin Has a Low-Resolution Display
Fielding phone calls from his wife, Chaudhri demonstrated that the Ai Pin is a smartphone replacement, and we could see call details and messages in green text with green icons.
But voice calls are a secondary use of smartphones. Typically, you’ll want tostream movies for free,visit fun websites when you’re bored, or play someawesome mobile games.
None of those things are possible with the projected display we saw demonstrated—and it’s even worse if you have to stand with your hand frozen in place or staring at a wall.
3. The Ai Pin Might Not Work in Sunlight
It’s all very well showing off a projector display in a darkened theater, but an entirely different experience in daylight.
Even some of thebest outdoor projectorsare unsuitable for use outdoors. It’s unlikely that the AI Pen’s tiny, low-resolution projector will cope well in direct sunlight.
4. What About the Battery?
The Ai Pin promises to be a complete offline AI. If you’ve ever run an AI orlarge language model on your own hardware, you’ll know that it uses a tremendous amount of power and will quickly heat up your equipment.
The device appears to be smaller than a phone, so it’s doubtful that you’ll have an all-day battery—especially if you’re in the habit of lighting up a darkened room with your pocket projector.
5. The Ai Pin Isn’t Exactly Wearable
When you think about wearable tech, you’re probably picturing something you’re able to attach to your body. A brain interface is wearable tech, as is a smartwatch, or, if you’re of a more nefarious bent, so is a court-mandated ankle tag.
The point is that these devices don’t require any additional support. You don’t need to stuff your smartwatch into your pocket or conceal your ankle monitor inside a set of oversized cowboy boots, and Apple’sexpensive Vision Pro headsetis clearly meant to be worn on your head.
It’s immediately obvious that the Ai Pin isn’t a true wearable. Chaudhri’s demo unit peeked out from his jacket pocket, and while one possible way of carrying the Ai Pin would be on a lanyard, this makes it less difficult to steal and would exacerbate the stability and focus issues.
Humane’s Ai Pin Seems Like a Gimmick
Aside from the lack of correct capitalization in the Ai Pin’s name, almost everything about it seems ill-thought-out for modern smartphone users. That’s not to say future versions of the Ai Pin won’t improve on the above issues, and having an offline AI tool in your pocket is something we’re definitely going to see more of before long.
But in practical terms, it needs some work before it can even be considered for the mainstream.
