Humane’s AI Pin seems to be forgetting what makes a good wearable

For the past week, I haven’t stopped thinking about Humane AI Badge.

As someone who has worn and reviewed wearables of all shapes and sizes, this pin is confusing and confusing. The premise is that this is supposed to help you look at your phone less – which is what many people say they use their smartwatches for. For $699 with a $24 monthly subscription, you’ll supposedly be able to call friends (like smartwatches), talk to voice assistants (like smartwatches), interact with a camera (like smartglasses), and project a screen (like smart watches). glasses).

None of these concepts are new, so I find it crazy that this thing blew up the way it did. Sure, the form factor is flashy, but it flouts the main rule of good portable design: you have to want to carry the damn thing. Preferably, as much as possible. In public. Where people can see you, judge you and interact with you.

Humane seems to think that making this fashionable will do just that. The pin debuted at Paris Fashion Week on the back of model Naomi Campbell. But ask Apple how the fashion route worked for early Apple Watches (poorly). While the style East key, the most important thing about wearables is that they are versatile enough to be worn all the time. This is actually a high-tech pin. And with brooches and pins, you usually wear them with outerwear. I don’t think it’s a coincidence if you look through Humane’s marketing images, almost all of them show the device pinned on blazers or hoodies. But what happens when you walk in and take off your outerwear? What exactly are you going to pin this to in the spring and summer?

Considering that this weighs about as much as a tennis ball, it will make any T-shirt slide and forget about blouses, dresses or fragile shirts. I’ve used lighter magnetic lapel mic clips when filming videos and if your shirt doesn’t have structural integrity you’re going to have a bad time. If you want to use this pin every day, you’ll also need to be extremely intentional with your clothing. In the announcement video, Humane co-founder Imran Chaudhri certainly wasn’t. You can see the pin slide the collar of his sweater when he puts it on.

This is less of an issue with most other portable devices. Smart watches, earphones, smart rings, smart glasses, and AR/VR headsets are worn on the body. Once you put the device on, it stays in place no matter what you wear. You don’t need to transfer the device from one outfit to another, which is tedious and increases your chances of losing it.

The other problem with wearables? Water. A few years ago I reviewed the product from L’Oreal My skin journey – a wearable sensor that you pin on your clothes to measure UV exposure. I wore it on jackets and on my shirts. And then I threw it in the wash and accidentally destroyed it. Granted, this sensor was tiny and this would be harder to do with the AI ​​pin. But there’s still a reason why earbuds, smart rings, and smartwatches have water resistance ratings ranging from IPX4 to 5ATM. People get wet! An unexpected rainstorm, sweat, doing dishes, spilling drinks, getting splashed by a passing car because you’re standing too close to the curb – these are all things that successful wearables can withstand. Meanwhile, at Humane Product FAQsit states that “For optimal performance, your Ai Pin and electrical accessories should not be exposed to water. »

These things combined are just annoying enough that I can see most people leaving this pin in a drawer to collect dust. But beyond portability, emerging technologies like this face another obstacle: culture.

I saw the AI ​​Pin compared to Star TrekHumane’s communication badges, but there’s a big gap between that and what Humane does. This is a fictional device in a fictional universe that has set standards for how these devices are used. When an officer needs to speak to a crew member, he taps the badge lightly and speaks. It’s not weird because everyone around them understands what’s happening. This is not a luxury that Humane and other leading clothing manufacturers have in the real world.

Let me put it this way: in a public place, would you rather shout into your chest to speak to a voice assistant or pull out your phone to look up the information yourself? I know what I would choose, because I had to do it recently.

When I examined the Ray-Ban Meta Smart Glasses, the idea of ​​saying “Hey Meta” in public made me cringe. I did this once during my commute to see how I would feel. It was embarrassing and I never did it again. And it’s on a device where there’s a microphone that sits directly in the bridge of your nose, pointed directly at your mouth. Even though some people have no problem yelling at Siri, making it public is still a social faux pas. Humane’s pin has a “personal speaker”, but you shouldn’t underestimate the power of ambient noise. Even with the excellent nose mic and omnidirectional speakers of the Meta glasses directed towards my ears, I still had to speak loud enough for the AI ​​to register what I was saying. These glasses were discreet, so at least I felt like I was speaking into a void. Yelling at my shirt… that’s a step too far. This has nothing to say about the camera, and how we as a society still don’t really know what we think of body cameras in general.

These are just a fraction of the scenarios and questions that come to mind. But it all comes down to this: We no longer measure the success of a laptop by how well it replaces your phone. The best wearable devices act as an extension of it or do something your phone can’t do, like collect real-time health data. So why is Humane trying to bridge a gap that doesn’t really exist?

Even if I have doubts about this pin, I would thrilled for my portable world to be disrupted. But for that to happen, I’d have to try one myself. So Humane, the ball is in your court.