Comment by imiric | Hacker News Reader

Comment by imiric | Hacker News Reader

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It wasn't that long ago that it wasn't socially acceptable to have phone conversations in public wearing Bluetooth ear pieces, whereas now we don't think twice about it. A few decades before that, the same thing with portable music players and headphones.

Society adapts quickly to technology, but, as you say, the tech needs to be good first.

I think we've reached that point with voice recognition and AI assistants. It's now a matter of time until someone connects the pieces into a functional and accessible product.

The reason smartphones are not the devices to get us there is because they're not a good fit for this use case. Pulling out a rectangular slab with a huge screen out of your pocket every time you want to interact with a voice assistant is enough of a UX hurdle that most people won't do it, even if it would be socially acceptable. Even if this was in a watch form factor, which we'll surely see as well, just bringing your arm close to your face would get slightly annoying over time.

So a light pebble device you can pin on your shirt or wear as a necklace seems like a good form factor for this. The Limitless Pendant is another recent contender, and seems like a better thought out product compared to the Humane Pin. These devices aim to be unobtrusive, and disappear into the background, yet still remain deeply integrated into our lives. This is what technology is trending towards. I reckon the smartphones of today will seem primitive in a few decades, replaced by seamless VR/AR in glasses and primarily voice-driven wearable tech. We're currently in this transitional period where companies are investing in high-risk products to see what sticks, but eventually someone will launch something that resonates. Just like Apple did for smartphones in 2007.

Why wouldn't the device just be your ear buds connected to your phone?

I already use siri all the time as I usually have my AirPods in and it works great. That seems like a much more likely device to access our digital assistance than some necklace or pin. Better yet, you could just pair it with your smartwatch and not even need the phone.

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. I just am not going to have a conversation with my computer with others around.

> 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.

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.

> 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.

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.

You do know that things like hearing aids exist right?

I agree. No matter how good LLMs and voice recognition get, having a screen is still the best way of inputting and reading information in many scenarios. If I'm trying to find a restaurant to go to, unless I'm in a real "just decide for me" mood, I want a screen. I can read fast, see pictures of the food, open multiple browser tabs to remember potential options, quickly scroll menus, etc. I don't want a voice slowly reading me out the names of restaurants one-by-one.

And that's just finding a restaurant. Imagine using voice input to book a flight. I feel sick just thinking about it.

For visual content we'll need some kind of screen, of course. But I don't think this will be in the form of a rectangular slab we carry in our pockets, where we use our fingers as input. It's much more likely that it will be in the form of lightweight glasses, and eventually contact lenses, or if we get to that sooner, directly in contact with our visual cortex. It's scary to think about today, but we'll get there eventually.

As for input, think about how slow, clunky and imprecise touch typing really is. I'm typing this on my phone right now, and it's still infuriating. And this is after more than 15 years of perfecting this technology. This is just the best it's ever going to get.

Voice recognition OTOH, if it gets to a state where it's 100% reliable, understands all our accents and nuances, in all kinds of environments, then it's not difficult to imagine it becoming the primary input method. And in recent years, LLMs have made generational leaps in this area to the point where this can finally be a competent option.

You won't need to have a list of restaurants read back to you, or have to have long interactions to book a flight or vacation. This is what the Rabbit device is trying to sell, and they at least have the right idea. The AI will have deep knowledge about you, so that just by saying "book me a restaurant tonight", it will make the right decision for you. At least, that's the idea. I think we'll get there eventually, even if the Rabbit is not the device that does it today.

Tell me how you're going to use voice input in a library, or for that matter any environment where noise is socially frowned upon.

Voice input can definitely function as a primary source of input, but you're always going to need a secondary source as a backup.

> It wasn't that long ago that it wasn't socially acceptable to have phone conversations in public wearing Bluetooth ear pieces, whereas now we don't think twice about it.

When amongst other people? Maybe I'm behind the times, but it's still rather annoying in my mind. And the younger generations don't really seem to talk on the phone much at all anymore. They just text.

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