Microsoft Tests AI Wearable Badge With Camera and Desktop Cube on Employees

Microsoft is testing a wearable access badge and a small desktop cube that connect to its software and let employees interact with AI agents. The devices are currently used by a few hundred of the company's own workers. Steven Bathiche demonstrated the concepts at Microsoft's yearly conference for technology developers.

One device is a portable cube with a touch and voice-activated screen meant for a desk. The second is a lightweight badge designed to hang around the neck or on a belt loop. Satya Nadella said the gadgets represented a new form factor for technology devices.

The company called the effort Project Solara and said current pilots will inform how these form factors can be built in the future. The badge is equipped with a small camera. During the demonstration, Bathiche activated the badge with his fingerprint, pointed it at the audience, and instructed it to take pictures of the crowd and send them to him.

He said the camera allows agents to better understand and help take action on the environment around them. In a recorded video, Nadella was shown wearing the badge on a lanyard around his neck. The badge and desktop device connect to various Microsoft software and PCs, letting users interact with AI agents outside a laptop or desktop computer.

Microsoft previously developed the HoloLens wearable headset. The company said in 2024 it would stop producing the HoloLens after nearly a decade of development and issues during military testing. BBC News reported that the demonstration was part of a video showing office workers tapping screens on the devices to interact with AI agents.

The access badge is designed for agent interactions on the go, Bathiche said.