Wearable devices will become a new outlet for AI applications

At the end of 2023, the startup Humane released an AI device pinned on clothes - AI Pin, which can be connected to a proprietary large model developed based on GPT-4 and interact through projection. AI Pin sounded the new horn of wearable device transformation. Since 2024, many technology giants such as ByteDance have begun to enter the wearable field, and various new wearable products loaded with AI functions such as smart rings and smart pendants have been unveiled one after another. "Wearable devices" are the most widely used mobile terminal hardware today. They are closest to the human body and most closely integrated with daily life. With the support of AI technology, they may replace mobile phones, computers and other hardware in some scenarios, realize the reconstruction of AI edge devices, and become the most important carrier for the landing of large models.
Wearable devices are undergoing disruptive changes, and the market prospects are promising
With the continuous development of science and technology, wearable devices are ushering in disruptive changes. First, in terms of product form, new wearable devices are showing a trend of being invisible, lightweight and flexible. At present, the continuous improvement of microelectronics technology and the integration of electronic chips has accelerated the miniaturization process of electronic devices in design, and wearable devices are getting smaller and smaller, even making people feel invisible. At the same time, in order to improve user stickiness and increase consumer usage frequency, technology manufacturers focus on lightweight product design. In addition, in order to better integrate with the human body to improve the efficiency of information transmission, the research and development of electronic devices with flexible electronic materials and flexible interfaces has also become an important trend and direction in the design and development of wearable devices. Second, in terms of interaction mode, new wearable devices will completely subvert traditional human-computer interaction. The traditional interaction method of hardware terminals is through physical contact (buttons, touch, etc.). With more advanced language understanding and multimodal processing technology, new wearable devices can interact through voice, gestures, images, heart rate and even thoughts, and process voice and visual information at the same time, so as to fully understand the needs of users and provide the most appropriate help to achieve truly natural human-computer dialogue. Third, in terms of technical path, new wearable devices gradually divest from the mobile phone ecosystem and open up independent terminal technology routes. Technology giants such as Apple and Samsung have always regarded wearable devices as extended products of mobile phones, and information push relies on Bluetooth or network to communicate with mobile phones. A large number of start-ups have begun to develop and launch wearable devices that are no longer dependent on smartphones. For example, Humane launched AI Pin, which aims to bring users a world without smartphones through AI technology and wearable computing; Rabbit launched Rabbit R1, which is positioned as an artificial intelligence assistant and does not need to be connected to a mobile phone. Orders reached 10,000 units on the day of its launch; OPPO cooperated with WeChat to launch the WeChat watch version, which can be used independently of the mobile phone, becoming a milestone for smart watches to become independent.