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Show HN: Omi – Open-source AI wearable for capturing conversations
Hi, HN! I built a proactive open-source AI necklace that transforms your conversations into summaries, proactive feedback, and insights
I built this because I want to use it myself: many companies are advertising such technology but no one is shipping
The app can work with or without wearables so you can try the experience without buying anything
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Update: wasn't expecting this post to get attention, so please let me know if I need any special tags like Show HN
- mplewis 2y agoDon’t wear one of these near me. I don’t want you recording our everyday conversations as a matter of habit. Ask permission first.
- kodjima33 2y agoDo you tell the same to millions of people who wear headphones and Meta Raybans?
- borski 2y agoMillions of people don’t wear Meta Raybans yet, and headphones aren’t generally recording me without my permission. In CA, recording me in a setting where I have the expectation of privacy is illegal, unless you have asked my permission first. So yes, the law tells that to “millions of people,” if that many people decide to start recording conversations. That has nothing to do with using an AI assistant that only listens to your voice and doesn’t store the recordings.
- teddyh 2y agoThis was covered with Google Glass ten years ago: <https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/06/14/glasshole https://www.penny-arcade.com/comic/2013/06/14/glasshole>
- squigz 2y agoThis is a pretty poor response if you're trying to sell a product.
- mplewis 2y agoYes. Get your weirdo cameras away from me.
- tbrownaw 2y agoMove to a jurisdiction that requires all-party consent for recording. Or alternatively, get with the times and recognize that people will sometimes offload some of their mental processing onto silicon.
- NegativeK 2y agoWe shouldn't have to move states because people are being rude. That's a bit drastic. I totally understand the desire to have computers help us, but telling people to get over it is a blatant rejection of their desire to privacy.
- CTDOCodebases 2y agoIt makes you wonder what the legal implications are of owning an Amazon, Google or Apple device with a voice assistant turned on in one of these jurisdictions.
- shagie 2y agoVoice assistants have a wake word. There is low power circuitry that is running locally listening for a specific series of syllables and a buffer of a second or two of audio. Once that wake word circuit detects that series of syllables, then it activates the rest of the device and starts streaming the buffer and current audio into whatever systems it has for transcription (or cloud). In many cases, this happens locally. If you have an iPhone, put it airplane mode and say "Siri, what time is it?" And it will respond - all processing is local, no recoding on the cloud for that request. Some other requests may require additional processing. "Hey Siri, where am I?" -> "To do that, you will need to turn off airplane mode." If you have an Amazon device, enable the "Start of request sound" ( https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=21341310011 https://www.amazon.com/b?ie=UTF8&node=21341310011 ). With this in place, you can then hear when the wake word has been triggered. None of these devices are constantly recording or streaming to the cloud (aside: consider the network and compute requirements if every iPhone or Android was constantly streaming sound to Apple or Google for it to be recorded). https://www.nxp.com/design/design-center/software/embedded-software/voicespot-wake-word-engine:VOICESPOT https://www.nxp.com/design/design-center/software/embedded-s... https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-sr/en/latest/esp32s3/wake_word_engine/README.html https://docs.espressif.com/projects/esp-sr/en/latest/esp32s3... https://www.syntiant.com/news/syntiant-low-power-wake-word-solution-available-for-amazons-alexa-voice-service https://www.syntiant.com/news/syntiant-low-power-wake-word-s... https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224163648_Fully_integrated_500uW_speech_detection_wake-up_circuit https://www.researchgate.net/publication/224163648_Fully_int... (from 2010, Fully integrated 500uW speech detection wake-up circuit)
- WhitneyLand 2y agoWhat about an autistic person if they could use it for real-time high level cues on the primary emotion being conveyed? When my son was growing up there were times I wish he didn’t have to struggle or guess as much.
- squigz 2y agoBecause that's not going to be reliable, and doesn't solve any of the other issues with this technology. Please don't shoehorn us into these conversations about insane privacy-invading gadgets. (I do think AI/LLMs have a lot of potential for making life easier for autistic people, but ... this isn't it.)
- explorigin 2y agoThis! LLMs have a lot of potential to fill the "support person" role for high-functioning autistics.
- RockRobotRock 2y agoHealthcare is giving autistic people GPU credits every month
- scottfits 2y agoBeen using it for months, really like it!
- bhy 2y agoCould you give some detail on how does it help you?
- weekay 2y agoI have been using it on and off for a few months since getting the device delivered through the kickstarter funding campaign . The code base keeps changing frequently and isn’t stable . But there is an active and helpful discord channel . Initially there was an option to bring your own API keys from open ai and deepgram . But now the ability to bring own api keys seems to be gone and that will concern me about privacy etc ., . The design is simple , device collects the voice sends it to deepgram , transcript is stored on device and then shared with open ai with relevant prompts to summarise the discussion and do what ever you want through plugins that can be configured. Use it primarily as a backup / secondary notes taker in meetings . Think of it like a Microsoft teams copilot or firefly equivalent for zoom etc There is a option to store the voice and transcripts to your own gcp bucket which is nice if you want to remember / do any prompt engineering on your meeting transcripts Something like this will replace the expensive meetings / note taking apps The integration with outlook / calendar apps is flaky and the level of details and ability to setup next steps / meetings schedule through transcripts is weak
- Hizonner 2y agoSo not only does it record everybody you talk to without meaningful consent or any realistic way to escape it, but it also uploads the results to a bunch of cloud services run by sleazeballs and idiots.
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- ipkstef 2y agois this the same thing Avi Schiffmann is peddling ?
- nox101 2y agoI wonder if this is even legal in many places. Doesn't California require consent to be recorded? This seems like an edge case
- nighth4wks 2y agoSuper interesting product! I like the pivot from mentor to friend. How is this different from the Humane pin? cheaper + open source/ no projector?
- squigz 2y agoI can't wait for stuff like this to become more common, and then the inevitable data leaks. Instead of SSNs and emails it'll be the private conversations of millions of people, many of whom didn't agree to this.
- porcoda 2y agoExactly. All of these things that ship data off to cloud services are basically data breaches waiting to happen. The fact that devices like this not only put the owner at risk, but others who didn’t consent to having their conversations recorded and shipped to a third party is even worse.
- nighth4wks 2y agoHow is this different from the Humane pin? cheaper + open source/ no projector?
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoMakes me want a wearable white noise generator, except it's specifically tuned to jam speech transcription AI.
- hlfshell 2y agoIt kind of exists; here's one such video demonstrating the (not as advertised, but still kinda works) results on a microphone.\ https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyeCn7HlLck https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FyeCn7HlLck Younger ears find it excruciating though.
- tetris11 2y agoSeriously. It's bad enough sometimes that you go to friends house and have an Alexa responding to every half word. Now we have to put up with this? For what actual gain? What percentage of a normal friendly conversation is something you want to actually review and document. Less than 5%?
- Forgeties79 2y agoAs someone who is not neurotypical I actually could really use something like this due to memory issues associated with my diagnosis. Especially professionally.
- __MatrixMan__ 2y agoYour comment made me think about it differently, thanks. We don't need to jam these adversarially, we need a wireless protocol that enables polite behavior. Imagine if you were walking around broadcasting "I'm recording" and you run across somebody broadcasting "please don't record". The devices could prompt a conversation between humans. Changing the dynamic to one that's resolved initially (rather than later, when somebody's upset because they didn't know they were being recorded) would be a significant shift I think.
- natpalmer1776 2y ago
- Hizonner 2y agoAren't a lot of y'all in California? Because wearing a wire is generally illegal there... https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySection.xhtml?lawCode=PEN§ionNum=632 https://leginfo.legislature.ca.gov/faces/codes_displaySectio...
- jejeyyy77 2y ago[flagged]
- deleted 2y ago[deleted]
- infotainment 2y agoWhat a strange law. It seems to me that it should always be legal to secretly record conversations.
- Legend2440 2y ago38 states agree with you and allow you to record any conversation you're a part of. 12 states, including california, disagree.
- tonyarkles 2y agoThis is also, at least in Canada, why most security cameras only record video and not audio. If two people have a conversation that is recorded without their knowledge, you don’t even have one-party consent. You can record video in public but not audio. Edit: where I am we have one-party consent rules for audio recording. I can have my phone in my pocket recording without you knowing just fine. But I can’t tape a microphone to a park bench and record the conversations there that I’m not a part of.
- elric 2y agoAlso illegal in Belgium, and presumably many other European countries, without prior notification. Spying on people is not cool.
- eikenberry 2y ago> Open-Source: Fully open-source, empowering you to customize and enhance your experience. Fully open source? So the AI models used are all free software with everything available? > Live Transcription: Capture live voice and audio with human-level accuracy using OpenAI Whisper and Deepgram. > Efficient Summarization: Get instant insights and summaries powered by ChatGPT in just 5 seconds. Nope.
- discardedrefuse 2y agoOpenAI Whisper is open source. I'm not sure about Deepgram. And I don't see a reason you wouldn't be able to implement a self-hosted llama backend for the summaries.
- ziofill 2y agoI’m not sure I understand: is it doing the processing? Or is it more like a Bluetooth microphone?
- INGSOCIALITE 2y ago[flagged]
- squigz 2y agoYes, advocating for violence against people 'cause of a gadget they wear is probably the best way to fight this.
- BoorishBears 2y agoI don't agree with the violence but it's also pretty low to paint this as being "'cause of a gadget", it's about the right and expectation of privacy... very different than "just a gadget"
- ianbicking 2y agoThis is awesome! I have been thinking about what I'd want in an open source product after feeling unhappy trying to mess around with Bluetooth devices and overriding the assistant on an Android. I really think an open source experience is going to be the only way this specific area will advance (wearable voice assistants). Apple/Google/Amazon are always going to very conventional in how they think about the purpose of their products, how personalized they can be, how much they can be expected to understand the user. Looking at the Apple prompts, it's notable how uninteresting they are. There is no real theory of function, no sense of relationship or roles. They are just letting that all default to some unspecified common sense (as found in the model), handling only the surface level of these interactions. And they don't appear to bake that into the model because that wouldn't be enough, because those deeper interactions require state that seems pretty clearly to not be specified. Anyway, I'm really going off on a prompting tangent. I think there is _really_ deep stuff people could be creating using these building blocks. The kinds of developments that are a synthesis of modified personal behavior and the tools provided. A tool this powerful is being wasted (theoretically and right now in actuality) if you don't modify behavior when using it. But that's a terrible way to make a commercial product, you can't expect people to change for you. And so they create these very bland experiences that are the projection of their current apps onto a voice or AI interface. And they aren't wrong to take this conservative approach... it's very boring but very rational. I think this is a particularly opportune moment for people with their own very personal and specific ideas about how integrate AI into a particular part of their life to try to actually build that experience, with an authentic goal of just improving their own life. An open source stack makes that possible... including the device, because Google and Apple just won't let you use a phone that way. So this is very exciting! My dev kit is ordered, and I await it eagerly
- squigz 2y agoAs an apparently excited user of this device, what do you think about the privacy concerns - both for the users themselves, but more importantly for people who interact with the users?
- ianbicking 2y ago
- AlphaWeaver 2y agoI'm confused - the title says "like Friend" but this appears to be a rebrand of the existing Friend pendant?
- discardedrefuse 2y agoI think they mean "Friend-like" pendant. This appears to be an open source implementation of the Friend pendant.
- Terretta 2y ago> I think they mean "Friend-like" pendant. This renamed from Friend, and still (as of this comment) refers to itself as Friend in the home page footer links to the two variations of the product, Friend and Friend Dev Kit.
- dimfeld 2y agoI agree the title was a bit confusing. There were actually two separate AI pendant products, both named Friend. My understanding is that this is one of them, and they changed the name shortly after the other was released. Edit: ah seems the title has been updated
- aixpert 2y agoWhy did they back down? The other one just stole the name and bought friend.com ? Even the best lawyers cant justify banning the original inventor?
- tzm 2y agoGenuinely curious if people think this is a product, solving a real problem? My mind goes to critical privacy rights and would likely require offline use?
- jamilton 2y agoIt is a product. It is something people will buy. Lots of people just don't care about privacy that much, and the privacy risk factors with this are potentially lower than for other things people use with roughly the same level of "realness".
- Hizonner 2y agoMore to the point, lots of people don't give a damn whether the people they are talking to care about privacy, and/or feel that it's somehow their place to make risk decisions on behalf of others. Garbage people are a large and lucrative addressable market.
- devbent 2y ago> Genuinely curious if people think this is a product, solving a real problem? For people with memory issues, products like this can be life changing. On a second note, imagine a world where everyone has perfect memory recall. The concept of "recording" someone is useless, as everyone around a conversation (e.g. sitting at the next table at a cafe) would be a 100% reliable witness to the conversation. Obviously we would not fault someone for taking steps to train their memory to be better, so why fault them for using electronics to improve the limits of biology?
- croes 2y agoThe agencies will love that additional data source.
- spacecadet 2y ago[flagged]
- unraveller 2y agoI'm just taking a video, Goober.
- mrinfinitiesx 2y agoThe intentions seem genuine, and the ideas are good for what you would want people to use it for, but what about people like me? Recording data on and around you especially without their consent is not something I'm okay with. I'm against Windows adding in their 'Recall' feature highly, I don't want somebody's computer taking screenshots and transcribing my encrypted chats on all of their computer usage, I sure as hell don't want to be around somebody who's too lazy to take notes or be present in the moment with their friends to solidify memories within themselves that they can just go back on and get transcripts of who and what was said as they traversed the day. So again, what about people like me? Sorry, but this is spyware in every sense of the definition. There's no argument against that there. https://notfriend.org/ https://notfriend.org/
- serf 2y ago>Recording data on and around you especially without their consent is not something I'm okay with. fulfilling that request would make nearly all 'connected' devices untenable. I absolutely agree with you , but from this point how does that actually happen? how do we shift away from minuscule connected devices that sense everything about the world around them when they come effortlessly cheap and absolutely invaluable?
- rapjr9 2y agoSomething like this might work: "Virtual Walls: Protecting Digital Privacy in Pervasive Environments" https://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~kotz/research/kapadia-walls/index.html https://www.cs.dartmouth.edu/~kotz/research/kapadia-walls/in...
- tobbe2064 2y agoIn the end this is relies allmost completely on proprietary AI as a service services, right? I think the exact services should be advertised as well to help understand the limitations of the device. E.g. Can I use this device for any language or is it just English. Can it do translations?
- simianparrot 2y agoThe privacy issues with this and the inevitable data leaks and blackmail potential is staggering. Please consider whether you should publish something instead of just whether you can.
- purple-leafy 2y agoI hope for the privacy focused among of us, that this fails.
- karencarits 2y agoAlthough people here are focusing on the conversation part (understandably, as it is part of its marketing), I also find the voice memo part interesting, especially for situations where you are working with both your hands but need to remember something. E.g., while driving, doing carpentry, working in a fume hood, and so on
- stared 2y agoOmni (necklace) +2 Charisma +1 Intelligence A necklace with a helpful spirit living inside a silicon crystal. The spirit grows with every word it hears. "First you wear it, then it wears you"
- samstave 2y agohttps://www.surveillancewatch.io/ https://www.surveillancewatch.io/ -- I personally have wanted something like this for years -- but at the same time im anti surveillance - what would be interesting is "anti-surveillance surveillance" Imagine placing these in the planter in a conference room... board room, green room. Stick one in the head-liner of an SUV used by political folks. --- (also not sure why "LED" is listed as a feature on the "connectivity" section... I had posted earlier about a redditor who wanted to make a thing similar to this with whisper and such, for transcribing conversations at a corporate conference...
- olejorgenb 2y agoThis is super interesting IF they add an clear option to configure the providers so it's possible to only use on-device processing / self-hosted providers. EDIT: from the FAQ in their discord: > Q6: Will there be other STT (Speech To Text) Services allowed? > Yes! We currently use Deepgram while we are developing the app but we plan to update the settings so users can choose a wide range of STT services like OpenAI's Whisper, Deepgram and we want to allow users to use there own hosted server for this.
- kkielhofner 2y agoOmi has a pretty interesting architecture that has been completely open-sourced: - The device itself is a Nordic Semiconductor BLE chip with GPIO, mic, and BLE. - Audio is streamed (as OPUS) via BLE to the associated mobile device where some initial processing is handled. - The audio is then passed to a FastAPI-based backend API service that handles integrations with Deepgram, etc. Overall I think it's a clever way to handle this: you get to use very cheap hardware that sips power (battery) while utilizing the connectivity of the associated mobile device whether it be WiFi or cellular.
- nickthegreek 2y agoI wish it had settings to easily replace deepgram with a self hosted whisper or equivalent tech.
- russdpale 2y agoIf you wear this you are a fucking creep.