Welcome to the World of Audio Computers | Jason Rugolo | TED
In an exclusive preview of unreleased technology, designer and inventor Jason Rugolo unveils an entirely new kind of computer you can talk to like a friend. This "audio computer" - which can augment the sounds around you, translate conversations in real time, naturally respond to your voice and more - promises to shake up how we use our devices. It's shown publicly for the first time ever on the TED stage.
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• Welcome to the World o...
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The ability to adjust ambient sound volume for conversations and real time translation is incredible. What a time to be alive.
Amazing time to be alive, as long as you're not poor, and being exploited by corporations making the latest gadget. May we learn to create a more equitable world. As well, I hope we become more sensitive to the needs of our ecosystems, as we advance technologically.
Yeah same 😊
@@justinciallella4724 Those concerns don't even register with most AI bros.
Hold onto your papers!
@@justinciallella4724 Look...we can either have a world like Star Trek or we can have a world like Mad Max. Are there problems with corporate exploitation and world poverty? Yep. But things like this push us towards Star Trek and away from Mad Max. Find things that support what you want and support them.
Jason derulo been real quiet since jason regulo dropped
Jjjjjj j r
Bro stop😂
Wrong spelling ❌
And we haven’t seen them in the same room, just saying.
Did an AI voice sing “Jason Regolo…” when he stepped on stage?
“Her” was a documentary
And you see how well that turned out.
I was thinkin' the same
Yes 😢 I thought about it too when he said "genuine conversation"
☺️ my grandma likes the movie 👵🏻📱
OpenAI released GPT-4o a day ago. That is really “Her”. So I don’t know how this product will compete. But the restaurant situation was impressive, to isolate and translate a person and a language. Combined with GPT-4o would be very good.
This concept and hardware - I think - could be a "game changer" in the translation space. Meaning visiting a foreign country and having this in your ear for every conversation.
Thats the big take away i got from this device too
It already exists in the Samsung Galaxy S24 and the google pixel. Infact, nearly everything he says already exists.
Just another AI Pin， Rabbit R1. Without screen , without scream.
Or use it to teach you a language before visiting that country. Both options wld b amazing.
As a quadriplegjc person, I would love to wear it all day. Man, what a magical technology! ❤❤❤
We're in that era
Imagine a scenario where 5 people next to each other are trying to voice text at the same time. I'm keen to understand how would this device maintain privacy in that scenario?
Seeing as it can (apparently, from the demo) pick out and isolate a single person's voice, even one that isn't the user, it's probably not that hard any more for this tech to pick out your voice versus others’.
@@238Hero238 thats not the problem. the problem is 5 idiots talking to themselves out loud and possibly spilling out sensitive information.
I would assume it could mute other peoples voices, so you wouldn't normally be hearing others unless you specifically wanted to, which you could. Also you wouldn't need to be next to someone, you could be far away and it could probably pick them up, single them out and amplify it.
@@shlomojacobs-velde3838 And it wouldn't bug you that people with these devices could eavesdrop on your conversation with someone across a room? This isn't going to go well.
Portable Cone's of Silence like in Get Smart perhaps?!😅
I think everyone one under values the privacy aspect of inputting information into our phones. The reason all those people felt comfortable interacting with their phones in the coffee shop is because is private. I would recommend to any company working on something like this to focus on finding a private way of speaking to your device. Imagine if any time you were on the train, or bus (even at home with your family) and wanted to do something on your phone, a big screen would appear that let everyone see what you are doing. I know other people can't hear what the device is saying, but they can deduce what you are doing from your commands. Any time I want to interact with the device in public, I dont want to have to do some mental calculus of if whether I should be saying this out loud. That is friction. I mean even simple things like messaging my wife that I love her and will be home soon, I don't want other people rolling their eyes. I am probably more socially anxious than most, but everyone has their limits. Neverthless, I think this device is an awesome idea and people would love it.
So this is more of a concept than a completed device
Kind of like what happened with the Rabbit. The "teaching" function is still, months later "in development" and has exactly 4 apps it can interact with, but hundreds are also "in development" they say.
Cool. I'm sold. Audio, makes all kinds of sense.
It's only one sense.
right @@marlon82mc
Literally the movie her in real time. Can’t wait
This is a sales pitch. "Not our product" (sells the only product that works well). "Private" (has to ask loud questions) Wearing earbuds all day, is terrible for your ears health.
Great point; Whats the extended use, health repercussions that are expected; are there ways to mitigate said ‘repercussions’?
To me, talking has never felt "normal". I rejoiced when email etc was introduced. Count me out.
Humans (in general) can also process reading words faster than listening to them being spoke. I think this tech has a bunch of interesting uses but my email isn't one of them.
@@MandyBB Check out videos of visually impaired people using screen readers. They can consume a full web page faster than you can read it because they speed up the audio to speed of the micro machine guy.
@@meenstreek I feel like an idiot for not considering speed controls! It doesn't always play nicely with my ADHD but if people can listen and retain the information I could see that working for emails
Wouldn't it be more efficient and convenient to do all the computing in your phone that you are anyways carrying around you that has also much powerful CPU/GPU. Also it is not a audio computer, but audio user interface. Like some would call normal phone a graphical computer because it works through graphical user interface :D
Hi, great points. Here are some of my thoughts and reasonings: 1) Lower latency. For something like a real-time audio processor, I think having a fast and seamless audio experience would be crucial for something like this, giving preference to computation done on the ear piece hardware. 2) Battery life. Less data transmission between the ear piece and your phone means a longer charge life for the ear piece. 3) Functionality. Critical processes could still be carried out, like voice commands or music, if something happens to your phone. 4) Security. Having sensitive information capable of being stored on the device mitigates risk with transmitting that data to and from a phone. For your second point, I think you contradict yourself a little bit. In the first sentence you basically describe the ear piece as a computer, but then say it is not a computer in your second sentence. Excuse my pedantry, just wanted to give my 2 cents as well.
I am the only one who thinks it's a response from chat gpt?
@@forthehomies7043 Nice chatgpt copy&paste response there. 1) Bluetooth 5 has latency of 40 milliseconds or 0.04 seconds. How much lower latency would you need? 2) How long you would think the earpiece battery would last (while doing computing) vs phone battery 😅. Average high end smartphones have 3000 - 5000 mAh batteries and this ear device would maybe fit 500mAh battery without being too heavy to carry. Additionally you can easily charge your phone while it is in your backpack etc, so now downtime due to phone. 3) how often "something" happens to your phone?. What if "something" happens to your "audio computer"? Both have similar problem but it is much easier to get a new phone than a new "audio computer". 4) You think there is no way to secure wireless networks? No encryption methods used in Bluetooth?
@@forthehomies7043 Geez, why would you comment such obvious BS? All of your points are absolutely irrelevant.
@@Thermaos You posed the question, perhaps it's reasonable to expect a response. I'll preface this comment by really emphasizing the entire reason for their product is to be able to stray away from needing to constantly interact with, hold, look at, and physically touch a secondary device like a smartphone all of the time. 1) 40 ms latency isn't THAT fast, quite frankly it's pretty slow compared to what can be easily accomplished otherwise. And if you've ever experienced 40ms vs 4ms, you'll know that the difference in experience is substantial. 2) piece* Also, I'm not talking about the battery life on the smartphone. I'm talking about the battery life of the ear piece. It's a basic fact that the battery would last longer without needing to constantly communicate with a smartphone. 3) That's one of the big selling points of their product, if not the biggest, that they have chosen to go with. Not being forced to always have your phone on you at all times, or to have to constantly interact with it, or have it right in front of your eyes the whole time. 4) Another basic fact, it's much safer to be able to store sensitive information on the ear piece as opposed to having to constantly transmit. Again, you posed the question as to why they are doing what they are doing. I provided you with a list of pretty common sense reasons as to why they are doing what they are doing. By the way, I didn't copy and paste from ChatGPT.
MKBHD: This is the second worst product I have ever reviewed.
Audio only, is going to be vastly limited for everyday use. Again excellent for a bunch of other scenarios. Ability to link with a visual devices on demand could help.
This would reduce the need or desire to look away from the road when driving and gather knowledge needed for a current task you don't have the ability to stop and use your hands and eyes to access information. I'm ready to test it out.
Mind blowing for visual impaired people
But we shouldn't be able to turn that baby down
@@prajnaparamita6199 I have a Hearing notch. I can't hear women and children. I have the hearing of a dentist. This would be useful to actually bring those frequencies forward without a hearing aid.
@@prajnaparamita6199damn right we should. I’m paying top dollar just for that feature alone. It’s a flight travellers dream.
Phone devices are fine. The addictive algorithmic nature of the software, promoting consumerism/vanity/narcissism is the real problem. But good effort.
Just looking at screens all the time is not very good though, that was his point, a way to use this technology and new tech with the need to always be looking at a screen
Phones won't fundamentally change in a hundred years (rectangular touch screens you carry in your pockets), like umbrellas and paper clips also never did (or hardly). The template is perfect already. Yes, couldn't agree more: data collection and what whoever does with it is going a dystopic way in many directions!
Oh great, so now instead of everyone staring at screens we're gonna have people talking to themselves, or being interrupted from an in-person conversation by ads. Now parents really won't be able to tell what is getting into their kids' heads. What could go wrong?
Shhhh.......remember it's an AI bro with a startup!!!! Bend your knee to the AI Gods.
The pessimistic ideology is self serving, you should leave it.
People been talking to themselves for years already Bluetooth headphones
Maybe be a good parents and DONT buying this to your kids. Parent to parenting.
😅
I was absolutely blown away by the movie 'Her' when I watched it for the first time! Can't stop thinking about how amazing it would be to have something like that in real life. And now that it's actually in development, I'm beyond excited! Imagine having your own voice assistant with custom voices of your loved ones, even those who have passed away like your mom or dad. It's mind-blowing! 🙌
This doesn't solve the bigger issue is that we spend too much time interacting with tech, instead of the real world. In fact, this further normalises it, by further integrating intrusive tech into our lives! Regardless, isn't it obvious this is the way voice-activated tech is heading? Hardly visionary.
I see a lot of people not understanding how great this will be. An assistant like this who can understand context and perform tasks while literally always being a word away is gonna be phenomenal. Not to mention the audio benefits shown at the end. Separating out audio of voices and lowering babies crying is insane. We’re in for some crazy tech.
Are they going to have something that works for the deaf or hearing impaired? Also, how will helping you with learning languages, when that involves being able to read the language as well as speak?
is it just me or is this literally Tony Stark and Happy combined into one person???
LOL! Not just you now 🤣
That would make him a Topy!
First thought is after seeing this product (ik this is more about the concept of audio computers but this comment is talking about the product specifically), look slightly weird, how does it affect your hearing and does it heat up. Havent watched the full video but ill see if those points are addressed
Mind blowing! This is the future I want to live in! The 'mixed audio reality' demo was awesome. I can imagine using this to focus in noisy environments or even learn a new language while I'm out and about.
This seems like a commercial for a product that’s already in development by multiple companies including GAFA, no?
I like it. Once we get proper VR glasses in the form factor of something like the Meta Ray Bans and combine them with these the way we experience the world is going to change drastically!
Fasinating innovation
When everyone wants to exploit the eyes, he tries to exploit the ears.. Very brilliant idea !!
This mixed with some kind of glasses that can produce 3D/ augmented reality as well as having two cameras on it to be able to take 3d photos and video would be quite something. In fact, I can imagine such a system that might just work.
I just loved it! ❤❤❤ For me its the one of the best Ted Talk I have ever watched fully and enjoynly, and Can't wait to have such auditory computer... Might take more than 10 yrs???
I am amazed by your work Jason. Can't wait to see on the market and test myself ❤
wow the last demo was awesome just brilliant
I've been waiting for this application that "you can hear everything in your own language" for so long and I hope I can use it for a while before I die.
As long as there are now radio ads in the middle of the conversations.
Don't worry, they'll invent a paid subscription plus so you'll skip them. But hey, look at the bright side: AI will keep track of everything you say (and this is only for your very own convenience, believe it) 👍
It reminds me of the Cybus EarPod. Very cool.
I want to see a full on display, full aautonomy. Great piece of tech. Hopefull to see some interesting products around it.
I kinda expected to hate this. But he explains it very well and this is definitely a huge part of the future.👍
pre recorded af 😂
Oh thank god I'm not the only one
Its great seeing potential interfaces. Rings glasses phones and here audio. Also the nopes neural link. If your paralyzed or have some issue sure, but seeing the continuous hacking going on, no way that's going in my head.
Now THIS is what I really consider “real time translations”. Not like everything else that listens, wait to translate, then translate after the person is talking.
Wow, first time seeing a video at launch
This actually looks useful and has the potential to really benefit humans on deep levels. I hope it becomes reality and is available to everyone
This device presented here is IYO ONE ! Imagine this amazing device with GPT-4o with low latency (less than .320 seconds !) It sounds a dream ! ❤
Cool! Apps that translate some language to another in real time its just a dream! Wanna see it and hear it in future! And of course with this things we can make some kind of assistant that would be help in many kind of work. Like in Blade Runner, when Decard speak with computer and give a voice commands.
Combine this with Chat GPT 4o would be amazing.
I think this type of tecnology is sort of cool. I kind of look forward to maybe testing it out in the future when it becomes available.
Amazing! "We Will Watch Your Career With Great Interest"
I've been using chat gpt (now it has a voice as well) and I'm been able to try the best os the two worlds, in one side I have the screen that can show what I wanna see and by the other side I can have a software that can talk to me, do my researches, motivate me when I need, etc.... so, I'm very satisfied so far!
I never thought I'd say this, but I'm actually excited to talk to a computer that doesn't judge me for eating Chipotle in my pajamas
This is a thinly veiled advertisement - how is this different from the recent explosion of transformer-powered LLMs? Slap a layer of NLP on top and we have an "audio computer"
What a great presentation, what a fabulous device. Stacking AIs is very cool. Not sure how comfortable those "buds" will be over time, but over time they are only going to get smaller.
Raises some very serious privacy concerns!!! For example, listening in to conversations the wearer is not even part of!
And so people will socialize even less. They will talk to each other less and less. This is what current communication technology means. New generations of anxious individuals who no longer have the courage and ability to communicate with each other face to face.
Probably received more money than most of us will see in a lifetime to build a device thats no different than me throwing an earbud in and using Google assistant. Ted really has just become a showcase for silicon valley bro tech.
Amazing.. what a time to be alive.
"Heads up, hands free" I love it
It is really amazing that this device has the ability to translate simultaneously and I believe one day it will have high sales throughout the world!
Imagine you're on a train and instead of quietly on their phones, everyone is talking to themselves. This doesn't solve the problem of being in the present moment with the people around you, it's arguably worse than what we have already.
im honestly for this technology. I think 90% of what i use my phone for does not need the screen. But im curious in the demo how Jason asked the computer to "enhance pedro". How does the computer know who or better yet what Pedro is? I'm suspicious of tech demos, especially this one for some of its use cases. Otherwise, I can't wait until this trend becomes big and other tech companies follow!
This is a tech sales pitch. Every modern phone has a functioning ai assistant that works through earbuds. Yeah the voice is annoying but thats gonna change here very soon. Edit: he says "the sounds right infront of me" but there is *zero* way the microphone on that headset is good enough to do that well everytime. Also he definitly said "simulate* so the demo wasn't even real. Just POV tech fantasy.
I’m curious on your daily activities w your mobile device if you don’t need it for 90% of your activities
As revolutionary as this is, I can't help but feel that this would be impossible without any of the large LLMs... especially OpenAI or Anthropic's. And anything built around these guys, to me, feels like a big problem.... conversations with the new GPT model are powerful. The new hack they have is the auditory transformation... that feels super nice.
Very cool. I can see what I'd do with just the apps that were demonstrated to us. I'd want something like this in my headphones, or as that device we saw. Even v1 seems fine.
This will simply be an app on your phone. Why should you give up the visual functions of a smartphone? Nothing prevents you from using an AI assistant only via audio if the situation requires it or you prefer it. In my opinion, it makes more sense than buying an additional device with fewer functions. For privacy, you can simply use your existing Bluetooth headphones.
This looks brilliant in so many ways
it would make a lot more sense to have it run on your phone, you know, the device pretty much everyone already have, besides they're already really powerful. and there are things that you wanna do that requires a screen, for example if you ask the AI to show you something on a map and then i could also use my normal earphones that doesn't make me look like I'm at a star trek convention
It's interesting. They definitely hit their goal in eliminating or reducing screen time. I'm excited to see how this innovation continues in the future.
Interesting concept. First I’ve heard of it. Could be very useful.
It's a refreshingly realistic, not overly sci-fi and unrealistic, it's simply a streamlined application of existing tech. I look forward for this in the future, I hope it'll be manage to stay "pure" and not some dystopian advertising platform. We'll have to wait and see.
I'm getting to the point of real-time language translation. It is an idea that I once thought about during one of my classes. But I'm probably forgetting it. It's actually pretty cool when it comes true. I will take care of it.
first the unnecessary r1 and now the unnecessary giant AirPods. But oh wow! What a revolution!
such a great idea! keep working!!
The chief problem with audio interface is bandwidth: the average human can process optical data much faster than they can process audio data. It only takes a glance, a fraction of a second, to ascertain a state of any given thing, and with training you can learn to intake a huge amount of written information (speed reading) With audio interface, your maximum data input rate gets bogged down pretty quickly, not to mention the time needed to both form and phrase the query in the first place. There's no such thing as "speed hearing"; you can't listen to a 40-minute concerto sped up to last only 3 minutes and interpret the piece the same way, if you could even discern discrete elements of the music. For background tasks that require little attention, this is great, or situations where your primary interfaces (optical and haptic) are occupied and you have a low-priority task that also requires optical and haptic interface. Like replying to a text message while driving. But if a human needs to intake large amounts of data in a very short period of time, almost nothing beats visual interfaces. This is the reason that the whole man/machine" interface has more or less all come down to a combination of visual and haptic for primary input and output of data, with secondary functions being relegated to audio. How do we know? Just look at our cars. You'd be better off with a purely haptic interface than with an audio-only interface. This is just Clippy all over again.
This will make NSA's job much easier.
Waiting for the release of it , blends to my use of computer
It's definitely a revolution in tech industry
fascinating demo of a make believe device :)
The computer's voice sounded younger at first then older all through.
Interesting developments especially for those with hearing impairments but I am not sure if it will make us less social because we are in our own audio space all the time? Also, there’s a need to address what the increased use of ear plugs may have on one’s ear health. A case in question is the increased cases of tinnitus among young people who often wear headphones.
Ok, now imagine you're sitting in a train, subway or airplane. Now "convert" all the looking at the screen and swiping into audio... Phew, places will get even noisier.
Woah this is an amazing technology can't wait to have you on Beakick
I think next 10 years, everybody instead of hold phone, everyone will have small device or robot, everything we just make command and have conversation.
This looks amazing
Ah great I can talk to metals , say goodbye to my invisible friend 😁
Ted is in the marketing business now, congratulations. Such groundbreaking ideas, such brilliant entrepreneur.
Ted is in the business of sharing ideas...
@@sparkofcuriousity next, they will share how a company managed to create the most delicious candy bar.
@@perreal Well, if it was a groundbreaking, innovative and original method they employed in order to create that candy bar, then it's a valid idea to be shared. Wouldn't you agree?
@@sparkofcuriousity such as this one? sure, if you enjoy this go ahead. I think this is bs.
This is a nice direction!
It would be interesting to compare with GPT-4o...
TED talks have really become an infomercial
We already have phones in our pockets, this so called innovation might as well be headphones connected to our current phones with powerful CPU/GPU.
Incredible
I wouldn’t be worried about being stuck on the phone, I would be worried about those plugs stuck on my ears.
Hi Jason, please let me volunteer for you in mass-making these audio computers! I love the idea and have relevant experience! Warm regards, ede
Love it. Also want to know what would happen if you allowed conversation with nearby humans. Some people might not want their privacy intruded so much, but I for one would love to be more connected. One step along the road to meta-consciousness.
Also where do I see that data about auditory spatials...
Here we go again
Pair this with the eventually comming augmented reality contact lenses, and there you’ll also have the visual computing
Yes... Rabbit R1, just got it, it is awesome to have it.
How are you enjoying the 4 apps available and the wait for "teach" to be rolled out.
@@flickwtchr I don't use apps, like I said, you don't want to listen to the music on this or order food, it just doesn't make sense. It is excellent at what it does, well 95% of the time.
@@flickwtchr I don't understand why do you need apps? The only thing missing is actual reminders and notifications, calendar and some kind of journal would be wonderful and if they opened their API I would add journaling and be happy.
I'm so excited about AI tech and I believe in a bright future with it. This device goes in the right direction, although I doubt this is the right time. How plentiful the caveats are? We've just had two similar promising devices flopping so hard (Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1). We're just getting started with AI and it is still too dumb and energy-consumpting. I think it'll take at least a couple of breakthroughs so it'll mature into what we've just seen in the video. Maybe ten whole years away?
Yeah it's going to be so great having what would normally be a private conversation in a public place with say your boyfriend or girlfriend, as you are talking quietly with each other and assuming privacy, knowing that someone in that public space could be singling you out to isolate and listen into your conversation. Yeah, sounds like a dream, eh? More like a nightmare. Then of course, they will likely be able to record your voice, snap a photo of you, and create deep fake voice and video based on that input to do who knows what.
At least when everybody is looking at there phone it is a quiet place, even a relax one. when someone is taking a phone call in a bus or subway it is annoying. I am not intersted in earing someone else private phone call. Now imagine this new acoustic tech, everybody taking at the same time and who is talking to who or to what. The end of tranquility and a big bump in noise polution.
I don't want to be negative about this but my opinion is on all computing support tools which is what essentially they all are so no matter what new form factor they are given we end up in the same place with another device that alienates us all from each other while the device supports us in task that we all used to do without the need of these devices. Granted the advances in the technology is great but in the end it's the same just in a different form. So are we all unaware of the facts that we keep moving forward while continually giving the gifts of alienation disguised as tools to make life simpler.
Great product concept. Further, humans also use other sensory inputs in day to day activities. How about integrating some features with the existing earphones? I mean AI enabled earbuds which can also co-work with smartphones could be complete package. Just a thought.
I can’t wait to invest into this company
The only friend you'll ever need lives right inside your ear.
MKBHD setting up his ringlight right now.
that joke was actually pretty hilarious hahah