The Humane AI Pin and Rabbit R1 were two of the earliest attempts to offer fully voice-controlled artificial intelligence (AI) devices. Both failed to meet their targets due to software glitches and the AI model’s capabilities, which were still not yet fully developed.
With “AI agents” now a popular trend in the AI world, several AI systems have been developed to serve as servants to humans. At Microsoft Build, Project Solara was announced as a platform for devices that use AI agents to function on Android.
The two concept devices shown were a smart screen on a table and another was a smart necklace. The smart necklace worn has a camera and NFC system. Solar is multimodal, providing easy access to see, receive voice control, see the surrounding area and get the right agent when needed. Microsoft sees Solara being used in healthcare, retail, the financial industry and more.
In the demo shown, the smart screen can process information about a business before producing a PowerPoint slide. In the warehouse, information about packages can be found by scanning barcodes with a smart necklace. Information about patients in hospitals can also be accessed through a smart necklace.
According to a Geekwire article, Solara is different from a phone because it does not require any application to function. The agent performs all the necessary tasks on its own in the background. It is not offered as a phone because in hospitals, for example, patients use personal phones to read information. This can raise privacy issues. So the smart necklace is used instead.
This is similar to the agent feature in Google Gemini which will soon be able to use Capcut, Canva and Adobe software directly from within the application. The agent performs image editing in Lightroom without human intervention based on what is desired.
It can also be seen that Solara uses Qualcomm and MediaTek chips. In addition to smart screens and smart necklaces, there are also indications that Solara can be used in glasses, watches, scanners, headphones, earphones and more. Microsoft emphasizes that Project Solara is just a platform with hardware that will be released by OEMs without them marketing it themselves.
