The Thing

A batteryless, body-coupled voice channel for an overt, consent-based AI meeting system.

The wearer is passive. A reader puck supplies RF illumination, receives the wearer’s analog backscatter, records an explicitly indicated room channel, and performs all storage and computation. The contact channel identifies the wearer mechanically; the room channel captures everyone else.

This repository is an engineering dossier and staged prototype plan—not a claim that a production RF design has already been validated. Every important statement is labeled as one of:

• Demonstrated — supported by a cited primary source.
• Derived — ordinary engineering analysis from demonstrated facts.
• Hypothesis — must pass the named test before it becomes a requirement.

Start here

Open docs/index.html in a browser. It is the central, offline-readable atlas and links to every engineering deliverable.

Then follow this order:

1. docs/start-here.html — the shortest path from zero to a defensible prototype.
2. SAFETY.md — neck-wear, RF, privacy, and test boundaries.
3. validation/DVP.md — tests and pass/fail gates.
4. hardware/wearer/README.md and hardware/reader/README.md.
5. mechanical/README.md — printable fit-check hardware and its limitations.

Product thesis

Conventional AI recorders put battery, microphones, storage, and trust on the body. The Thing moves all powered complexity into a visible desk puck. The choker has no battery, firmware, storage, network identity, or cloud credential. A user-operated mechanical mute physically opens the sensor path and detunes/shorts the tag.

The key commercial insight is two-channel capture:

• A throat-contact backscatter channel strongly favors the wearer.
• A conventional room microphone in the visible reader puck captures the meeting.
• Time alignment makes “me versus everyone else” substantially easier than blind speaker diarization.

Non-negotiable boundaries

• Do not test the 915 MHz → 515 MHz research topology over the air outside a shielded RF environment until a qualified compliance engineer approves the exact setup.
• Do not market, record, or retain anyone’s voice without the required notice and consent.
• Do not build a non-breakaway neck loop or a rigid ring.
• Do not treat paper dimensions as a production design. Body loading, manufacturing tolerance, and enclosure material change the RF behavior.
• Do not copy or sell a published architecture without a freedom-to-operate review and, where needed, a license.

Repository map

Path	Purpose
docs/	Offline HTML engineering atlas and diagrams
hardware/wearer/	Passive tag reference topology, antenna notes, BOM
hardware/reader/	Reader architecture, BOM, RF test boundary
mechanical/	Parametric CAD, generated STL fit-check models
dsp/	Auditable reference demodulation and alignment code
validation/	Design verification plan and test logs
compliance/	US/EU launch checklist and privacy gates
product/	PRD, market wedge, roadmap, IP/FTO notes
marketing/	Brand platform, campaigns, launch site, SVG art, GUI-only Blender sources
research/	Source registry and evidence/claim ledger
decisions/	Architecture decision records

Current status

Documentation baseline and fit-check models. No RF design in this repository is certified, licensed, or production-validated. The next physical milestone is P0: wired throat-contact acquisition, followed by P1: shielded backscatter feasibility.

The public-story concept lives at marketing/site/index.html. Marketing claims remain subordinate to the engineering claim ledger and validation gates.

Licensing

No project license has been selected. See LICENSE.md. Do not assume permission to commercialize third-party research or patents merely because they are cited here.