An aqua blue light appeared on my outstretched palm, displaying a menu. Slowly, I rotated my wrist to scroll, pressing an index finger and thumb together in a pinching motion to select an item. I wanted to send a text message. The device on my sweater, a two-inch square magnetic pin from a startup called Humane, let out a soft “clink.”
I spoke and the words that came out of my mouth were instantly projected onto my hand. Clenching a fist, the message was sent with a “hissing” sound.
The device, called ai Pin, is a new version of wearable devices that aims to supplant, or at least help us quit, our addiction to screens. Its functions include answering questions, making calls, sending text messages, playing music and taking photos. It costs $699 and a monthly subscription of $24, and will be available for pre-order on November 16. The company expects to ship the devices in early 2024.
It was, like any new technology, equal parts magical and uncomfortable. It took me a few seconds to wave my hand in front of my chest to find the laser menu. The circular movement of the wrist also takes a second to complete. In 10 minutes of using the device in the company offices, I gradually learned to hold the light and manipulate it.
The most fun, in my opinion, was the pinching motion. Pinch: Play a new song. Pinch: Start a new message. Pinch: Return to menu. The company refers to this motion as “selection,” said Imran Chaudhri, co-founder of Humane. “Pinching hurts,” he said.
I quickly ran out of things to pin, because unlike my smartphone, which delivers a constant barrage of dopamine in the form of emails, texts, hearts, news alerts, cute dog photos, and other notifications, the ai Pin de Humane is destined to disappear into the background of everyday life. I told Ken Kocienda, head of product engineering at Humane, that the device seemed to go in and out quickly. It doesn’t beg me to waste another 45 minutes on TikTok.
“It’s more of an attraction than pushing content at you like iPhones do,” he said. I dropped my hand and the light disappeared.
To ask a question, I touched the pin’s touch screen. To take a photo, I tapped twice. But to really see the photo you would need a screen. Humane customers will have access to an online hub with 32 gigabytes of storage.
The device’s “personal speakers” (an acronym for personal and loud) played music through the Tidal streaming service. The first customers will get a trial subscription. I quickly learned that it was much faster to use voice commands to change songs, like you would on a home speaker with Alexa, Siri, or Google. I felt a little like I had smuggled Alexa out of the house and was wearing her on my sweater.
The underlying technology of the ai Pin differs from other smart assistants in that it is not “always on”: users must tap the device to activate it. And its assistant uses artificial intelligence technology to deliver information conversationally. You can remember past queries and personal notes. (The personal note feature froze in a demo.)
Kocienda demonstrated this by asking a series of historical questions about The New York Times that built on each other, which the pin answered in about the same time it would take me to search Wikipedia on my phone. The point, she said, was that we didn’t have to disappear into our screens. “We look at each other while all this is happening,” Kocienda said. “We will not be distracted.”
Read more about Humane and his pin here.
Tripp Mickle contributed with reports.