Microsoft: a patent for a backpack… with AI

Students and office workers who carry heavy laptops and a plethora of personal items every day obviously rely on backpacks to store their belongings. For these people, there is good news: Microsoft could soon equip backpacks with artificial intelligence (AI).

A patent filed by Microsoft illustrates the concept of the backpack with an embedded artificial intelligence. It was filed on May 2, 2023 and published on August 24, 2023, as spotted by MSPoweruser.

The garment would be able to do much more than the basic smartwatch, with capabilities such as analyzing an environment, understanding voice commands and performing contextual tasks.

Help to the skier

To accomplish these tasks, the backpack would include pressure sensors, a microphone, a camera, a global positioning system (GPS), a compass, a barometer, biometric sensors, a speaker, a screen, a processor, etc.

Microsoft

In the patent, Microsoft describes the functions of the backpack:

The backpack can receive a contextual voice command from a user. The contextual voice command can include a non-explicit reference to an object in an environment. The backpack can use the sensors to detect the environment, use an artificial intelligence engine to identify the object in the environment, and use a digital assistant to perform a contextual task in response to the contextual voice command. The contextual task can be linked to the object in the environment. The backpack can transmit a response to the contextual voice command to the user.

An example of the patent shows a skier who is wearing the famous backpack and asks him a question on the slopes, to which the backpack answers: “No. This direction is out of bounds. Ski to the right to stay within the limits”.

Microsoft

Microsoft has filed several patents for products that have never seen the light of day

If you are wondering if the backpack is something you should expect at Microsoft’s launch event in September, the answer is no. There is a long way to go between filing a patent and marketing a backpack.

In the past, Microsoft has filed several patents for products that have never seen the light of day, including a trifold smartphone and headphones with a fingerprint sensor. So distrust!

Although the backpack with an AI will not make an appearance at the next event, Yusuf Mehdi, VP at Microsoft, confirmed via an X post (formerly Twitter) that Microsoft will say more about its innovations in AI.

Source: “ZDNet.com “