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HumanThe startup launched by former Apple design and engineering duo Imran Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno, today revealed details about its first product: The Humane Ai Pin.

A lot of time has passed. Humane has kept its work more or less secret since 2018, its founding year, without unveiling any products, but it did draw in dozens of former Apple employees responsible for the iPhone’s touchscreen keyboard, elements of Apple’s industrial design and infrastructure. for Apple services like iCloud, Apple Pay, and Home.

As it turns out, Humane’s product is a wearable device with a projected screen and AI-powered features. Chaudhri gave a live demo of the device on stage during a TED talk in April, but a press release issued today provides some additional details.

“The (AI Pin is a) clothing-based smart connected wearable device uses a variety of sensors that enable contextual and environmental computational interactions,” the statement read. “The Ai Pin is a type of standalone device with a software platform that harnesses the power of Ai to enable innovative personal computing experiences.”

Stripping away the marketing jargon, the Ai Pin will be able, assuming Humane’s claims hold up, to perform many of the same tasks that a smartphone can, but with fewer gestures and voice commands required. Activated with a touch, the AI ​​Pin, designed to clip onto a breast pocket, can provide a summary of emails and calendar invites, translate between languages, and answer and make phone calls.

Using a camera and computer vision software, AI Pin can also recognize objects around it, such as Nutrition Facts labels on food. And using a built-in projector and depth sensor, you can project an interactive interface onto nearby surfaces, like the palm of a hand or a table top.

Image Credits: Human

“Our Ai Pin presents an opportunity for people to take AI everywhere and unlock a new era of personal mobile computing that is seamless, screenless, and sensing,” Chaudhri and Bethany Bongiorno said in a canned statement.

Humane also revealed today that it is collaborating with Qualcomm to develop the internal hardware for Ai Pin. An unnamed Qualcomm Snapdragon series chip will power the wearable; Human promises more information later in the year before the device launches.

“Humane’s Ai Pin will deliver a superior AI experience,” said Ziad Asghar, Qualcomm’s senior vice president of product management, in the statement: “With the advent of generative AI, Humane’s Ai Pin and user experience take advantage of excellently captures the key strengths of AI on the device and uses real-time contextual information to provide the user with personalized and exciting AI use cases.”

Humane previously announced that it is partnering with SK Networks and Microsoft to bring its platform and services to market, with Microsoft supplying the cloud processing power and SK Networks handling the distribution. Meanwhile, Humane is collaborating with OpenAI to embed its technology into the startup’s device, whatever form it takes, exactly. LG, for its part, is working with Humane on R&D projects for the next phase of its product life cycle, as well as adapting Humane’s technology for smart home devices. And Volvo is partnering with Humane on a potential offer to the auto industry.

To date, San Francisco-based Humane, which has a workforce of more than 200 people, has increase $230 million from investors, including Salesforce CEO Marc Benioff, Kindred Ventures, SK Networks, LG Technology Ventures, Microsoft, Volvo Cars Tech Fund, Tiger Global, Qualcomm Ventures and OpenAI CEO and Co-Founder Sam Altman .