Humane Ai Pin reviews are here.
The reviews piled up on Thursday, with journalists offering their harsh opinions on a device being touted as the next “smartphone killer.”
Humane boasts that the Ai Pin, a wearable device without a display that can project virtual information onto your palms and take voice-activated commands, is a revolutionary device that can potentially usher in a “screenless” future.
The question, however, is whether Humane is blowing hot air – or is the Humane Ai Pin really a future smartphone disruptor?
The reviewers answered this question bluntly with harsh criticism. But first, here’s a quick overview of what exactly the Humane Ai Pin is.
What is the Humane Ai Pin?
Mashable’s Chance Townsend had the opportunity to get hands-on experience with Humane Ai Pin at SXSW. But you may be wondering: what is it and why is it causing a stir on the internet?
Photo credit: Humane
The Humane Ai Pin is, as the name suggests, a pin with AI features that you can wear on your clothes. It doesn’t have a screen. As Mashable’s Cecily Mauran explained, it can do the following futuristic things:
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Instead of relying on a display, it projects green virtual images onto the palm of your hand
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It does tasks, searches and commands using your voice. It can also answer questions using the underlying AI.
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It can translate languages in real time.
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It can identify objects and tell you something about them (e.g. how much protein is in a handful of almonds).
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It can take photos and videos by double-tapping for the former and long-pressing for the latter
But of course that only scratches the surface of his abilities. Let’s dive into this review roundup so you can get a good overview of the purpose of the Human Ai Pin.
Humane Ai Pin: 5 Things Critics Didn’t Like About It
This overview comes from a handful of reviews from The Washington Post to The Verge. Here are the five most common complaints:
1. Projecting Humane Ai Pin onto the palm is a failure
As mentioned, the Humane Ai Pin can project visual artifacts onto the palm of your hand via the device’s laser projector display.
Photo credit: Humane
It’s a cool idea in theory, but critics say the execution was poor.
“I’ll say it now: Humane’s laser projector display will never become mainstream as a viable way to interact with a device. It is overly sensitive and slow to navigate.” – Wired
“The projector’s 720p resolution is crap and it only projects green light, but it projects text onto your hand just fine unless you’re in bright light, and then it’s almost invisible.” -The Edge
“The projector is basically unreadable when you’re in the sun. Summer is just around the corner and I’m sure there will be plenty of warm days when I don’t want my phone in the way, but the pin is a lot less useful in broad daylight. -The Washington Post
Additionally, as you will see in the next section, interacting with this green projection was also challenging.
2. Using humane Ai-Pin gestures is painful
Because the Humane Ai Pin does not have a screen, it relies heavily on the user’s hand gestures (e.g. pinching and tilting the hand) to navigate the interface.
Unfortunately, many critics say that the gestures are too complex. In some cases, reviewers found that the Ai Pin did not “understand” their intended selection.
“Even after two weeks, I still have a hard time choosing exactly the right menu options” – The Washington Post
“I swear to you, I never managed to choose the right symbol the first time. There are far too many interaction systems to remember, especially when none of them work particularly well.” -The Verge
“If you tilt too much, it will move past the symbol you want and land on the thing next to it. That’s just annoying. Using the projected interface to search through old text messages is also a chore.” -Wired
“Pinching can feel a little uncomfortable, especially if you hold your palm open. It’s a hassle to tilt my hand and move it further out or closer to select numbers to enter my passcode to unlock the Humane AI Pin every time I attach it to my clothing.” –CNET
Humane’s co-founders are former Apple employees, but unfortunately they couldn’t secure the Vision Pro’s popular hand gesture magic.
3. You need to pay $24 per month to use it
The Humane Ai Pin absolutely requires You have to pay $24 for a monthly subscription to the T-Mobile network. The advantage is that you get three months free to start with. However, if this expires and you do not pay the data fee, the Ai Pin will no longer be functional. Wired said.
Photo credit: Humane
The Washington Post noted that this was “annoying,” especially because you need an additional cellular connection that isn’t connected to your existing number. Without it, neither your questions will be answered nor orders will be carried out.
4. Sound is a problem, especially music
WaPo I found that while phone calls sound good through the Ai Pin’s built-in speaker, that sound tends to drown out when standing in a crowd (although you can fix this by connecting it to a pair of Bluetooth headphones). Apple AirPods).
Photo credit: Humane
The edge went one step further and tested music on the Humane Ai Pin. To his dismay, it only supports the Tidal music app (for now). Unfortunately, however, the reviewer noted that the “connection is just as broken as everything else on the AI Pin.”
After trying to play Beyoncés Cowboy Carter On the album, the reviewer found that the Ai Pin was unable to play the tracks he wanted.
“Good morning [one of the co-founders of Humane] says this particular bug has been fixed, but I still can’t get Tidal to play Cowboy Carter consequent. “It’s just broken,” said The Verge.
5. Thermal problems
Several reviewers noted that the Humane Ai Pin would get warm – too warm.
Photo credit: Humane
“The pin starts to overheat fairly quickly if you make consecutive requests or use the pin’s projector for too long […]. When that happens, don’t be surprised if the pin breaks contact for a while as it cools.” – The Washington Post
“It is almost constantly warm. In my testing it never really got painfully hot, but after just a few minutes of use I could feel the battery on my skin like a hand warmer.” -The Edge
“It radiates this slight warmth that is still hard to ignore, especially when wearing a light hoodie or T-shirt. It makes my body feel a little warmer in that one specific area” – Wired
It’s worth noting that Bongiorno told The Verge that the heat comes from overuse or issues with a bad connection. In these cases, the device acts “aggressively” and switches off if it gets too warm.
Is the Humane Ai Pin worth it?
On the plus side, some critics praised the Humane Ai Pin for its ability to translate languages, with Wired calling its real-time translation feature “solid.” Others praised its design as it can be attached to a comfortable place (on the chest).
Some appreciated the Humane Center, a hub where you can find your photos and videos after taking them through the Pin. However, keep in mind that, according to Wired, you can only access it “when the pin is enabled and charging over Wi-Fi.”
Another cool feature that some point out is the Ai Pin’s ability to identify objects in one’s environment before telling them some information about them (although some critics noted that the AI’s response was sometimes inaccurate).
However, when it came to recommending the Ai Pin, everyone said no.
“Should you buy this thing?” That’s easy. No. Nuh-uh. Absolutely not,” The Verge concluded.
subjects
Artificial intelligence