Half an Hour,
Oct 08, 2019
Summary of the talk "Hearables" by Rory McGreal
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| Photo: Nobuko Fujita |
- What are they – Hunn 2014 – speaker-microphone in-ear with AI
- Progressive development from earphones, hearing aids, etc
- Can monitor:
- Blood pressure – stress, excitement
- Etc. 'Biological Equivalent to a USB port'
- FDA approval no longer required
- Could call 911 for you, order you medicine from Amazon
- Falls
- Can cancel out background, help hearing, do simultaneous translation
Cool-looking hearables
My contention: we can use for education as well as health
- Sony Experia Ear
- Livio (Starkey) – simultaneous translation
- Ambassador (Waverly Labs) – seems to be the best on the market now
It works – however – it's not robust – but when it does work, it's amazing
Benefits
- Can focus on sounds we want to hear
- Reduce unwanted sounds
- Portable, easy to use
Subset of wearables, also a subset of audibles
- Intelligent voice recognition
- Intelligent virtual assistant
IVA&NLU for education
- Augment intelligence, Direct neural links to info, Humans could surpass AI
- Can be a personal digital assistant, helping you when you need it
- In-context learning
- "Online learning needs to be unmuted, not just typing and clicking" – voice is the most natural form of learning, most intuitive
Example Applications
- The podcast explosion – more than half of all podcasts are educational podcasts
- Just-in-time learning, continuous learning, access to the manufacturer, hands-free
- Self-directed learning (Gibbons, 2002)
- Personal Learning – Connectivism
Issues
- Privacy – the microphone is always on – will it know what you are thinking?
- Technical challenges – power, latency, connectivity, memory, space – we're not there yet
- Nuisance factor – less discreet, users must speak
- AI in hearables – 'think' the word ?
"Memento Homo" – Remember you are human
I think it will be a revolution, equivalent to the mobile revolution. We're on the very beginning stages of something very new and very different.
From the discussion: prices coming down from $2000-$3000 to $500 or so.
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| Image: Lumen Coutre - http://www.lumencouture.com/wearable_tech/smart-earrings-a-hearable-computer-in-your-ear/ |
