An Indian-origin entrepreneur based in San Francisco has created Iris, a breakthrough wearable gadget that takes photos of a person’s life every minute.
According to Advait Paliwal, Iris not only records photos of “your infinite memory of your life,” but it also utilizes Artificial Intelligence (AI) to caption and organize the images, assisting users in recalling forgotten facts. Photos may be saved on the smartphone or uploaded to the cloud.
Iris is a round shape resembling an evil eye pendant, with one circle where a camera is fitted in the middle. The device is worn around the neck.
Paliwal stated in his blog post on Tuesday that Iris has a focus mode that detects when the user is distracted and delivers proactive reminders to stay on track to reach a certain objective.
Doctors may use the gadget to better understand their patients’ daily behaviors, employers to verify that safety rules are followed, and caretakers to monitor elderly patients without being obtrusive.
Paliwal, in a blogpost, said the Iris design was inspired by the evil eye symbol, which has been in use for thousands of years in different countries in Latin America and some parts of India, where people used it to protect against bad luck.
He developed the device over the summer at the Augmentation Lab in Cambridge, a two-month hacker accelerator residency programme for AI and hardware talent. He presented the device to over 250 people at the MIT Media Lab, where it garnered significant interest and enthusiasm.
While Iris offers substantial benefits for memory and focus, Paliwal acknowledged that there could be privacy concerns. He, however, stressed that the decision on how to use the device ultimately lies with the user.
“There are good and bad sides to this. On one hand, Iris could really help people with memory problems or help us stay focused on our goals. But it also raises concerns about privacy and how these recordings might be used,” he said.
He stated that Iris represents a new frontier in the concept of “lifelogging” and cited examples of previous attempts made by companies such as Microsoft Research, Narrative and Google Clips.
“Microsoft Research created a camera to assist Alzheimer’s patients. Users became deeply attached to their captured memories. Narrative gained popularity but lacked clear direction, leading to the company’s closure. Google Clips attempted to autonomously capture important moments but struggled with accurate detection, resulting in discontinuation,” he said, adding that a common challenge for these companies was data management.
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