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ZDNET Highlights
- Stream Ring captures whispered thoughts and organizes them seamlessly.
- The Inner Voice feature responds in the user’s own synthesized voice.
- The Stream Ring was designed to enhance self-expansion, memory, creativity, and organization.
The tech industry is betting that AI will replace human creativity and cognition. However, Sandbar is creating technology that complements these things.
Sandbar is developing an AI-powered smart ring with a single and key use case. Its Stream Ring is an AI-powered note-taker and idea organizer that lets users whisper. As the user talks, the accompanying app organizes ideas and lists. Then, the ring talks back, and, get this, does so in your own voice.
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“Ideas are constantly flowing, especially when we’re on the go. I wanted to capture thoughts or discuss ideas without taking out the phone or talking into a void. Importantly, I wanted that experience to feel like an internal dialogue, not a conversation with a virtual companion,” Sandbar CEO and co-founder Mina Fahmy said in the product announcement press release.
Fahmy and co-founder Kirak Hong first collaborated at CTRL-Labs, where they developed the neural interface that was later sold to Meta.
Is this the future of AI organizational colleagues?
I had a chance to tour Sandbar’s Manhattan office, get a demo of Stream Ring, and see for myself.
The aluminum-clad ring looks like an average accessory, but it has a flat crown that acts as a touchpad. Users press it to their mouth to activate the AI. To activate the mic you have to press the ring. Additionally, the touchpad can be used to control the music playing in the earbuds.
The Stream Ring is suitable for people who have an “active inner world,” says Fahmy, who are trying to organize, process, or express themselves and the many bubbling thoughts they generate. It’s also a match for Apple Notes app power users or those who are familiar with using existing LLMs in a conversational manner.
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Fahmy controls his music and thinks about the day of his meetings with Ring and their respective talking points on the subway while commuting to work. During the workday, he may go for a walk and talk ring to fully process the ideas or events. An Alpha user and marketing professor uses Ring to prepare for her teaching lessons as she drives and creates a note or agenda from those thoughts.
Another person talks into the device while watching their kids at the playground Because, unlike a phone or notepad, which requires the user to look down to use it, the Ring and its accompanying apps can be used without visual distraction.
When you call Stream, it completes multiple actions at once, such as providing feedback (connected to the web), deciding what to do, writing a note, and modifying, regrouping, and rearranging notes and memories. Various AI models power these types of functionalities.
By talking through personal experiences, thoughts and plans, the ring and its accompanying app, where all these interactions are conducted, serve as an extension of oneself, says Fahmy. The inner voice, the voice that speaks to them during these conversations, is the basis of this idea.
When setting up Stream Ring, users can choose to create their own internal voice or use a default voice that responds to them when it starts. I wanted to see what my inner voice sounded like, so I recorded myself reading a given paragraph, which the stream uses to generate that voice. Then, I heard myself talking to myself. It was ethereal – and a little more monotonous than my already monotonous voice.
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I asked Fahmi, will people really get used to hearing their own voices? He said that the first few times people hear their inner voice, they are skeptical or uncomfortable, but then, within a few days of use, they can no longer use the device without it.
He emphasized that the stream is not a reflection of the user but an extension of him. “We’re trying to give people a sense of themselves as well as whatever extra thing they need, an extra perspective, extra memory, empathy, or creativity.”
Stream’s approach towards this AI-powered device is in stark contrast to other AI-powered wearables currently in the market. Fahmy acknowledges that people have fears about AI hardware and software and a perceived threat to their own autonomy and control.
“I think the solution is to model something like itself rather than another. People have their own desires, independent lives, goals and perspectives. I don’t think machines should be like that. I think most of the problems we’re seeing come from how society is reacting to these machines, comes from the fact that we’re putting a lot of effort into modeling them as humans who will talk to you and have their own desires and dreams and back. Will move away,” Fahmi tells me.
Another important feature of Stream Ring is its ability to capture words and requests clearly – regardless of sound level. Fahmy whispered almost inaudibly to the Ring as she sat next to me, and the Ring captured her words accurately in the app.
The controls for the musical instrument element felt strange to me. Why did they include that component in the stream ring? Fahmy says the Ring is “the beginning of a conversational interface” that gives the user the tools and haptics to hold the device and pause, interrupt, or take actions quickly and quietly.
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“It needs to co-exist with Audio and other audio apps,” Fahmy explains. Fahmi rarely uses Stream Ring without opening his phone; He usually uses it with his earbuds. “It’s in my pocket, and I’m listening to music,” he explains. “If the conversational interface broke my relationship with music, I wouldn’t use it.”
When I tested Ring Out, I asked her to take notes on a meal I was going to make for my friends, to ask her for article ideas, and to ask her questions about herself. The haptic feedback was pleasant and responsive to my touch. Fahmi showed me how the app automatically crosses off bullet points from lists you told it to create and reorganize ideas in an intuitive way.
Bottom line (for now)
That’s the organization part that compelled me the most – what I want from my technology is to take my existing ideas and plans and fine-tune it for me. Stream seems to do this with ease. Every action and note taken was executed quickly and without any errors.
stream ring key It’s planned to launch next year for $250, which includes three months of Stream Pro, which provides unlimited interactions and early access to new features for free. After the trial period, subscription costs $10 per month. The ring is designed for most environments, allowing you to take a shower with it and wash your hands without any problems. It’s not made for sleeping and its battery life lasts all day. Pre-orders are now open.
