This is Imran Chaudhri who worked in Cupertino for 20 years and has now created his own company, Humane. And one of his first products is a small projector that would replace current smartphones.
Many still remember the revolution caused by the arrival of the first iPhone, the commotion caused by that pioneering iPod and the admiration for the features of the iPad… but that is over and Apple continues to have a legion of admirers but there are no longer great revolutions… Many They have hopes for the next mixed reality headset that the Cupertino, California company would present, but we will have to wait for it. Or not if we listen to Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno.
Who are they? Well… Chaudhri worked for more than 20 years at Apple and was largely responsible for the design of the iPod, the iPad, the Apple Watch and the evolution of the iPhone. In fact, he is responsible for the user interface of the iPhone that makes it so characteristic. He has over a thousand patents to his name, and when he left Apple in 2017 he founded his own company, Humane, with his wife, Bethany Bongiorno.
She was the director of Software Engineering at the apple firm, she was responsible for all software project management for iOS and macOS. Bethany Bongiorno is a physicist who has also worked in astrophysics research. With this team it is not surprising that, when creating Humane, they received investments directly from Microsoft and from Sam Altman, the CEO of OpenAI, among others.
This week, at a TED talk, Chaudhri revealed what would be one of his first products: a pocket projector that pops out of his jacket. The device, smaller than a smartphone, had an array of cameras and sensors on top that could project visual interfaces onto hands, tables, or any surface.
Ben Geskin
@BenGeskin
First demo of the @Humane upcoming AI-powered wearable device. A phone call.
Thanks @ZarifAli9 for sharing! https://t.co/7qyDScPkOh
April 21, 2023 • 07:56
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fifty
In a very careful staging, at the beginning of the talk, Chaudhri stops because his phone rings and he opens the palm of his hand, an image is projected on it and you can see, in blue, “Bethany calling”. Chaudhri apologizes and takes the call using voice and gesture controls…using no device other than the palm of her hand. It is a combination of technology and human interaction that Humane believes can be extended to many fields beyond mobile: viewing maps, receiving visual aids for cooking or repairing a car engine…
Goodbye mobile phones? hmmmm
Chaudhri also demoed the handheld device’s voice translator that translated his words into French while using an AI-generated voice to preserve his pitch and timbre. For now nothing more is known about the device. Neither its weight, nor its resolution or its reach. From the images it is assumed that it has a projector, sensors that allow interaction with hand movements, a speaker and a bluetooth connection for helmets. If it has memory, what type of intelligence it uses, how is its processor or the size of its battery, are factors that are still unknown.
The reality is that a device like this is unlikely to replace a smartphone. A fundamental factor to think about this is its camera, an element of the phones without which we can hardly accept the change and in this case none was mentioned. But what is innovative is that it can be used in education as augmented reality to facilitate learning, just like in large factories and even in home botch jobs, replacing YouTube tutorials: instead of watching a video, the image is It will be projected directly onto the broken washing machine and will guide us through the steps we have to take to solve it. What we can assure, knowing Humane’s history, characterized by giving information drop by drop, is that in a short time we will have more information. Not much, but enough to leave us wanting to know more. Like they always do.
