Insights from an interactive session here at the Gemklip studio with Karthik Mahadevan, the CEO of Envision. This is a brand that empowers people who are blind or have low vision to access everyday visual information. They use innovative new technologies like Artificial Intelligence, which is currently taking the world by storm.
The session covered topics dealing with newer tech advancements, and how industrial designers can be better equipped to adapt .
How Karthik met AI
Karthik and his team were immersed into the realm of AI on the pretext of creating a smarter solution to helping visually impaired people navigate through the environment. “Independence always means being able to access the information around you”. In order to do this more efficiently, tools provided by OpenAi softwares aid greatly.
We discussed about how as technology evolves, the distinction between hardware and software is a lot more blurry. The two now work hand-in-hand with each other. This gave us an insight into designing ID tools and products. We now know to keep in mind that we’ll be heavily assisted by Artificial intelligence.
The 3-step evolution in Hardware
We’ve seen from the most recent developments that devices that are now ‘smart or intelligent’ are phased out in three ways.
- Wearables : We can see with the introduction of devices like Apple’s Vision Pro, that most smart devices are inclined to being on your person as opposed to a separate device that you carry.
- Invisible : An increase in ‘personal help’ related devices that are invisible until you need them as your own individual assistant. We can see this very prominently in products designed by Humane, by Imran Choudhri.
- Embedded : taking the next big leap into the future, we spoke about Elon Musk’s Neuralink, and what it’s doing by taking tech one lever closer to you, by being literally embedded in your brain.
We also spoke about how AI, Generative AI and AGI (Artificial General Intelligence) learn things differently, and how are pioneers of research in this field are directing us to a more conclusive version of AGI for the future.
What do I do with this?
In our Q&A session, we spoke about customising AI into product design, how to accompany it with the different Operating systems out there and whether there really is necessity to make everything ‘smarter’. We also realised that there are more problems to this such as battery technology and privacy issues. These have almost always been pushed under the rug when it comes to product development with AI. It’s all about creating tools and using AI to aid us in eliminating the mundane, and leaving the fun parts to us.
The integration of AI into industrial design has propelled the industry into an era of unprecedented innovation and creativity. From automation to optimization, AI has reshaped the design process. This unlocks exciting new possibilities and transforming the way products are conceived and developed.
Find out more about us on our Instagram page: https://www.instagram.com/gemklipstore/?hl=en
Watch the full recording of the session here :
Karthik is a former employee who completed further studies in the Netherlands, and went on to innovate at Envision. Learn more about envision on their website: https://www.letsenvision.com