How it works
Three movements, no menus
There is no screen, so there is nowhere to put a menu. Everything the belt can do is one of three physical actions, and each one was chosen because your hand already goes there.
- 01
Pull the module out to talk
The module sits in a dock on the lower right edge of the buckle, where your thumb already falls when you reach for a belt. Slide it out along its rail, put it in your ear, ask your question. Because the gesture is deliberate, there is no wake word and nothing is listening while the module is docked. Put it back and the session ends.
- 02
Directions you feel at the hip
Most turn-by-turn navigation asks you to look down at the exact moment you should be looking up. Two soft zones sit against your hips, one on each side, and the one nearest the turn taps. Nothing lights up and nothing is visible from the outside. Whether people can reliably tell left from right through clothing is the first thing we intend to test, and it is the test the whole idea has to survive.
- 03
One button for the thing that matters
There is exactly one button, recessed into the underside of the buckle where nothing brushes it by accident. What it does depends on context you set in the app: take the photo, advance the slide, accept the call, confirm the payment. One control means nothing to learn and nothing to look at, and it means anything consequential needs a real press from a real finger.
Path-traced studio renders from the parametric design source · concept in development
01
Pull the module out to talk
The module sits in a dock on the lower right edge of the buckle, where your thumb already falls when you reach for a belt. Slide it out along its rail, put it in your ear, ask your question. Because the gesture is deliberate, there is no wake word and nothing is listening while the module is docked. Put it back and the session ends.
02
Directions you feel at the hip
Most turn-by-turn navigation asks you to look down at the exact moment you should be looking up. Two soft zones sit against your hips, one on each side, and the one nearest the turn taps. Nothing lights up and nothing is visible from the outside. Whether people can reliably tell left from right through clothing is the first thing we intend to test, and it is the test the whole idea has to survive.
03
One button for the thing that matters
There is exactly one button, recessed into the underside of the buckle where nothing brushes it by accident. What it does depends on context you set in the app: take the photo, advance the slide, accept the call, confirm the payment. One control means nothing to learn and nothing to look at, and it means anything consequential needs a real press from a real finger.
The split
The belt is dumb on purpose
Putting a cellular modem and an AI chip in a belt would make it heavier, hotter, more expensive and worse. The phone in your pocket already does all of that, so the belt only has to be a good way to feel and confirm things.
The belt does
- Holds a mono earpiece and charges it in the dock
- Vibrates at the left or right hip
- Reads one button press and sends it on
- Knows whether the module is in or out
The phone does
- The assistant, the routing, the internet
- Deciding which alerts are worth a pulse
- Speech in and speech out
- All of your settings and rules
Leave the phone behind and the belt is a belt. Lose signal and the taps and the button keep working over Bluetooth, but the assistant does not, because the assistant was never in the belt.
What that adds up to
Six things we want it to do well
All of these are planned, none of them are proven on hardware, and every one is meant to be switchable in the app. If a feature cannot be turned off, it is not a feature, it is an imposition.
Voice and calls, privately
The module is a single earpiece, so a conversation stays between you and the phone in your pocket.
A filter on your attention
You decide which contacts and apps are allowed to reach your body. Everything else waits until you ask.
Navigation without looking
Left hip or right hip, a short pulse before the turn. Your phone does the routing.
Physical confirmation
Payments, unlocks and sends can be set to require the button, so nothing important is one stray tap away.
A nudge if you walk off
If the phone stops answering while you are moving away from it, you get one pulse. No app to open.
Useful with no signal
Haptic patterns and the button work over Bluetooth to the phone. Only the AI part needs a connection.
Follow the build
We will email when the first haptic test happens, and again when someone has actually worn one.
Thinking about backing it instead? Read the investor page