In the future, we will have a distributed network of devices that will allow advanced personal AI services to enhance our lives. The first generation might be more devices, since battery power needs to be spread across the body and sensors:
- Smart glasses: See what you see, can display privately, can play audio privately, can track your eye & hand movements. The most ergonomic and preferred platform for AI interaction.
- Smart in-ears: When not using smart-glasses you will use these, audio-only or even enhanced services if cameras can be embedded for AI visual awareness
- Smart ring: Unobtrusive, tracks basic health, sleep, emergencies
- Smart watch: Take over many basic smartphone features, music, calls, notifications. Maybe the smart watch will take over 30-50% of what we do with our phones today if paired with smart glasses.
- Smart phone: Main processing brain, used for complicated interactions etc. might be replaced by the smartwatch? It really depends how we will interact with our services privately. Could be the mothership that keeps everything else on your body charged.
- Smart X?: These could be smart active shoes (great for kinetic harvesting), anklets, toe rings, piercings, earrings – there will be some surprises along the way for sure, but we should not let size of the electronics be a limiting factor.
Some Advantages:
- Less distractions: Control the amount of information you want, never look at distracting screens again unless you want to
- Distributed power and functions offers best ergonomics, battery life and access to sensor data
- Enhanced security with multi-factor biometrics and always-on monitoring of critical health information and alerts
- Perfectly suited for an aging world population: imagine having a memory or therapy assistant available 24/7, augmenting lost skills & memory.
Power sources:
- Energy harvesting to replace or augment battery life: heat, indoor light, motion, electro-magnetic energy-harvesting
- Low-power paired chipsets, smartphones can provide zero-power connections to body-worn devices with smaller batteries.
- Better battery technology: Density, safety and cycle lives will all improve up to the point that for example smart glasses will be as heavy as a pair of sunglasses.
Some of the technology is already here:
- Exeger’s Powerfoyle indoor light harvesting material exeger.com
- Perovskia perovskia.solar
- Atmosic ultra low power Bluetooth solution atmosic.com
- Syntiant & Greenwaves ultra low power AI processing platforms: syntiant.com & greenwaves-technologies.com
- Williot energy-harvesting sensors: wiliot.com
Latest advances in energy harvesting: sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S2211467X23000743