Real-time engagement platform Agora is powering a synthetic intelligence (AI)-enabled smart cane developed by Lgenie, allowing older adults to interact with the device through low-latency voice conversations designed for outdoor and on a regular basis use.
The collaboration highlights a broader shift in AI adoption, with developers increasingly embedding conversational AI into physical devices utilized in healthcare, smart homes, education, robotics, and mobility as an alternative of limiting the technology to chatbots and software applications.
“The smart cane is one in every of the earliest examples of AI moving from screens into the physical world. The technology adapts to the person, as an alternative of expecting the person to adapt to the technology,” Agora Physical AI Product head Xiao Dong Feng said in an email interview with BusinessWorld.
The AI-powered smart cane designed to support older adults enables users to ask questions and seek assistance through natural voice conversations while walking, without having to stop and operate a smartphone or other screen-based device.
Mr. Feng said the challenge was not constructing an intelligent AI model, but ensuring that the device stays dependable in real-world conditions.
“An older adult doesn’t judge the product by the sophistication of the model. They judge it by whether it responds once they’re standing at a busy intersection, whether it still hears them when traffic is loud, or whether or not they should repeat themselves several times before getting a solution,” he said.
Lgenie integrated Agora’s Conversational AI Engine to enhance reliability, which mixes speech recognition, speech activity detection, and full-duplex voice streaming to support low-latency conversations, real-time interruption handling, and stable audio performance even under changing network conditions.
In line with Agora, the deployment achieved a mean response latency of about 400 milliseconds, while also improving conversational stability and interruption handling during user interactions.
Mr. Feng said making conversations feel natural is equally essential because users should give you the option to talk the best way they normally do as an alternative of adjusting their behavior for the technology.
“Good AI answers questions, but great AI reduces hesitation. When people stop wondering whether the AI will understand them and easily proceed talking, that’s when technology begins to feel genuinely useful,” he said.
He added that users who initially spoke cautiously to the device eventually became comfortable interrupting the AI, asking follow-up questions, and changing topics naturally.
“People don’t consciously determine to trust technology. Trust develops once they stop fascinated about the technology altogether,” Mr. Feng said.
Agora said AI-powered assistive devices could play a growing role in countries reminiscent of the Philippines, where the variety of older adults is predicted to extend in the approaching years.
The corporate said the Philippines is predicted to turn out to be an ageing society by 2030, with people aged 60 and above accounting for greater than 10% of the population. At the identical time, smartphone adoption is projected to achieve 92% by 2030, while greater than half of mobile connections are expected to run on 5G networks.
Mr. Feng said AI should complement relatively than replace caregivers by extending assistance beyond the moments when relations are physically present.
“Relations provide empathy, judgement, and emotional support that technology cannot replace. Where AI could make a meaningful contribution is by extending care beyond the moments when a caregiver is physically present,” he said.
Looking ahead, Mr. Feng said the following phase of AI development will focus less on making models more intelligent and more on making AI dependable enough to integrate naturally into each day life.
“One of the best AI won’t continuously demand our attention,” he said. “It should quietly provide support on the moments when it’s genuinely useful.”
Through its partnership with Lgenie, Agora said it goals to expand using conversational AI across healthcare, education, smart home technologies, mobility, and other connected devices that require reliable real-time interaction. — Kaizzer Angela Marie V. Manuba