Hacker News Reader

Comment by Klathmon | Hacker News Reader

they specifically point out on the page that it's not a camera, doesn't capture any visual images, even works through some solid materials, and can sense in all directions around the device.

This looks literally perfect for something like a smart display. I have a google home smart display on my desk, and I like to keep it back far enough that it's a bit of a reach to touch the screen and interact with it. If i could just wave in front of it, that would improve things significantly! But add in the other benefits of something like this (just being able to sense where a person is around a device like a smart speaker or display seems like it could be extremely useful for better sound projection and better microphone listening), and it seems like it really could be a game changer.

I am wondering why they decided to first release it in a phone, where it seems like it has the least benefits...

View on HN

> I am wondering why they decided to first release it in a phone, where it seems like it has the least benefits...

Google wanting something in your phone that allows it to track engagement? I can't think why.. :)

> Engaged > Soli anticipates when you want to interact.

Plus a stationary or semi-stationary version only lets them collect data from wherever you place it. Put it in phones and pretty soon you've got whatever sort of data this thing picks up from damn near every room, every street, every trail, every car, every everything anywhere that people exist. Data to train your machine learning algos, for free. God knows what else—data to map every square centimeter of every environment in the modern world, for all we know.

Their priorities are spying-first, typically, so this is unsurprising.

It may help to understand Google's priorities by following up on this Hacker News link (https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=21271087).

Their goal is ubiquitous access. To get to that goal, they're collecting a lot of data about the world and their users to figure out where, when, how, and why users want data to optimize getting it to them. And yes, it probably serves their ad model too, but there's more to it than that; Google is helmed by a futurist and employs futurists, and is looking towards a not-too-distant future of always-on personal networks enhancing what a person can do in their day-to-day.

Their goal is the same as every company's goal, earn money.

If they introduce anything new, the first question is, how that will make money for them. If it is collecting data, the question is, how they can use that data to earn more money.

Also as it has been mentioned by someone in the comments, I'm really not keen being surrounded by another set of devices that can "see" me CCTV is more than enough already. I also I don't want to invite google to my home to map it out.

Probably Pixel4 owners are going to be asked to turn off their phone and put it into a box next to the door when they want to come into my flat.

Kind of but not exactly. Money is the lifeblood that the corporation needs to survive; earning money is the goal in the sense that the purpose of human life is "eat food."

The fact that the corporation is still basically privately owned though publicly traded (in the sense that the founders retain a controlling stock percentage) means that they can use the money as a means to whatever ends the founders wind up the company and point it at. They know the game is over if they run out of money, but that doesn't mean the game they're playing is "Build maximum monetary value for shareholders" any more than the game you or I are playing daily is "What will I have for dinner." They have enough controlling interest to vote that that's not what the company's primary goal is, in practice.

Now, why would anyone who isn't them play that game by buying GOOG/L stock? Because in spite of the company's goal not being "maximize revenue," it's very good at generating both revenue and product people care about, and the people trading its stock are excited about that. They get a piece of the action, even if they don't actually call the shots.

I have a Google Home (Google Nest Home now?) in my kitchen and think soli would be a perfect fit for it. Between the noise of my stove and music, sometimes it's really hard to get the device to hear my voice commands. Being able to do gestures with my dirty hands would be great.

Convenient form factor to get it into the hands of techie tinkerers.

Sell it standalone, and people have to really want to play with it.

Sell it in an already-portable form-factor that is also a phone, and the activation energy to try it is lower; if it doesn't work, at least you have a working top-model phone.

Reply on news.ycombinator.com