Microsoft has filed a patent application for an artificial intelligence-powered smart backpack that can see and hear surroundings to provide relevant information to the user. This futuristic backpack could revolutionize wearable technology by leveraging AI for advanced contextual interaction.
The patent filing, numbered 20220211567, details a backpack equipped with a camera, microphone, speakers, processor, and cloud connectivity. Using these, it can identify objects seen by the camera, detect audio commands and ambient sounds, and access cloud-based AI services.
By combining visual, audio and internet-connected AI, the backpack aims to offer relevant information or services without needing user input. For example, it could tell you the breed of a dog you're looking at, translate sign language into speech, or get an update on your next calendar appointment.
The six key functions outlined in the patent filing are:
1. Accepting multimodal user input via voice commands, camera, etc.
2. Identifying objects, text, sounds, gestures, etc. from raw sensor data.
3. Determining user intent and context using AI-powered inference.
4. Retrieving or generating relevant information from cloud services.
5. Selecting optimal output modality like display, speech synthesis, etc.
6. Responding to the user via visual/audio output.
By continuously analyzing sensory data and leveraging cloud-based AI, the backpack aims to offer an intelligent voice/visual assistant akin to Alexa or Siri. The patent proposes use cases like vision-impaired navigation, on-the-go translation, and hands-free information lookup.
While existing smart backpacks have integrated batteries, WiFi hotspots, and tracking devices, Microsoft's backpack represents an order-of-magnitude advancement in wearable AI. With contextual recommendation capabilities on par with smartphones, it could become an indispensable digital sidekick.
However, significant software and hardware challenges remain to be addressed. Accurately recognizing objects, understanding natural language, determining user intent, and delivering coherent context-aware responses in real time is extremely difficult, even for cutting-edge AI. Microsoft's ability to successfully commercialize the patented technology could lead to a new paradigm in on-body ambient computing.
With tech giants investing heavily in wearables and ambient computing, the AI-powered backpack patent is an intriguing exemplar of the next era of smart devices. Blending computer vision, audio intelligence, and internet connectivity could make backpacks smarter than ever, and reshape how we interact with our environment.
Check out the Patent for more Informations.
All the credit for this research belongs to the researchers who worked on this project.
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