Microsoft filed a patent for an AI backpack straight out of a sci-fi film

College students and workplace employees who carry heavy laptops and a plethora of private objects with them on daily basis depend on backpacks to carry their belongings. For these folks, there’s excellent news: Microsoft might quickly be infusing backpacks with manmade intelligence (AI) to take a backpack’s operate to a brand new degree.

A patent filed by Microsoft that showcases the idea of the AI backpack was filed on Might 2, 2023, and revealed on August 24, 2023, as noticed by MSPowerUser. 

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The wearable would be capable to do way more than your common smartwatch, with superior capabilities comparable to scanning an setting, understanding voice instructions, and performing contextual duties. 

To carry out these duties, the backpack would come with stress sensors, a microphone, a digicam, a world positioning system (GPS), a compass, a barometer, biometric sensors, a speaker, a show for visible outputs, a processor, and extra. 

Within the patent, Microsoft describes the features of the potential backpack: 

The backpack might obtain a contextual voice command from a person. The contextual voice command might embrace a non-explicit reference to an object in an setting. The backpack might use the sensors to sense the setting, use a synthetic intelligence engine to determine the article within the setting and use a digital assistant to carry out a contextual activity in response to the contextual voice command. The contextual activity might relate to the article within the setting. The backpack might output a response to the contextual voice command to the person.

An instance within the patent shows a skier who’s sporting the AI backpack and asking it a query in regards to the slopes, to which the backpack responds: “No. That course is out of bounds. Ski to your proper to remain inbounds.” 

When you’re questioning whether or not the backpack is one thing you must count on at Microsoft’s September launch occasion, the reply is not any. There’s a lengthy journey between submitting a patent and producing the backpack, and that is even when the product makes it to the manufacturing level. 

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Previously, Microsoft has filed a number of patents for merchandise that by no means noticed the sunshine of day, together with a trifold telephone and headphones with a fingerprint sensor. 

Though the AI backpack will not make an look on the forthcoming occasion, Yusuf Mehdi, company VP & shopper chief advertising and marketing officer at Microsoft, confirmed by way of an X post (previously Twitter) that Microsoft will likely be sharing extra about its AI improvements.