When an iPhone is connected, an AI application is automatically launched, and the smartphone becomes the "face" of a robot that can rotate its "head" and monitor the interlocutor.
DeskMate uses multimodal perception — it combines a camera and a microphone to detect when you are talking to it, without codebreaking.
The developers claim to eliminate the typical delays in speech recognition.
The device can be connected to a computer — the station has three USB-C ports, one USB-A and MagSafe charging.
When integrated with a computer, the AI works with the clipboard and sees the contents of the screen in real time. Mac is supported natively, Windows is supported through a separate application.
Among the working integrations:
- Gmail (email summaries and drafts of responses)
- Calendar (scheduling and reminders)
- Slack (information retrieval and message handling)
- Zoom via Calendly (meeting coordination)
- Booking via Yelp and SendGrid
The launch is scheduled for March 2026 via Kickstarter.
The price is less than $300 (however, the main monetization is likely to be through a subscription to an AI service). The robot uses your iPhone's processor, camera, and screen.