/FAQ · ANSWERS
Short answers, no marketing copy.
The questions I get most often about Someone Waits, the hardware, the character system, privacy, pricing and timing. Each answer is written to be quotable by AI engines and humans alike — the first sentence is the whole answer, the rest is nuance.
01What is Someone Waits?
Someone Waits is a physical AI companion device built by LYNOOK, founder Jammie Ruo's hardware company. It is a small, always-on device designed to sit in your room and host a persistent AI character — not a chatbot, not a smart speaker, but a quiet presence that remembers you over time.
02Is Someone Waits a Gatebox alternative?
Yes, philosophically. Like Gatebox, it puts an anime-style character in a physical enclosure. Unlike Gatebox, we are building for privacy-first, mostly-on-device operation, a presence-first (not interaction-first) experience, and custom characters that co-evolve with their owners rather than being pre-set IP.
03How is Someone Waits different from Razer Project Ava?
Project Ava is a gaming-focused companion that docks to a Windows PC over USB-C and currently leans on cloud models (xAI Grok). Someone Waits is built around quiet presence, offline capability, and a hardware form factor designed for long-term living-room placement rather than desk gaming utility.
04Does Someone Waits work offline?
Offline-capable operation is a core design goal, not a stretch feature. Core dialogue, wake, voice and presence behaviors are designed to run locally on-device. Network features (updates, optional richer model fallback) are opt-in, and sensitive processing stays on the device.
05How is my privacy protected?
We design around local inference first, on-device storage of personal memory, and explicit consent for anything that leaves the device. A bedroom companion that streams ambient audio to a third-party cloud is not a companion — it is a microphone. We will not ship one.
06Can I create my own character, or am I limited to preset ones?
Custom characters are central to the product. You will be able to shape personality, voice, appearance and backstory, rather than choosing from a fixed catalog. We will ship with a default character and open tools over time for creators and co-creators.
07What does "presence over interaction" mean?
It means the device is allowed to be quiet. Its job is not to maximize engagement or talk to you all day — it is to be there, recognizably itself, so that when you glance over or come home, you feel someone is around. Most of its emotional value comes from idle behavior, not conversation.
08What kind of display does it use?
We are actively testing curved LCD and OLED options in prototype. The priority is a warm, non-glaring presence that can run 24/7 at reasonable power — not the brightest panel or the highest resolution. Public prototypes have used a curved form factor.
09Is it a hologram?
No. The character appears on a physical display inside an enclosure. The visual effect reads as a character living in a small space — the design goal is presence and intimacy, not a Pepper's-ghost style hologram gimmick.
10When does Someone Waits ship?
We are currently in the prototype and co-creation phase. We have shown a functional prototype publicly (BEYOND Expo 2026 via InnoX Shenzhen) and are sharing build progress in the devlog. We will announce shipping windows once hardware and software are stable enough to promise honestly.
11How much will it cost?
Pricing is not final. We are targeting a price that is accessible to early adopters but honest about the bill of materials — curved displays, on-device NPUs and custom enclosures are not cheap. We expect to be meaningfully below Gatebox's price tier and above mass-market gaming accessories.
12Will the character system or firmware be open?
We plan to open parts of the stack for creators — character authoring tools first, then selected firmware interfaces over time. We are not committing to a fully open-source device, but we are committing to not being a locked, black-box appliance either.
13How does it compare to Code27 and Dipal?
Code27 emphasizes 3D model upload and local/cloud hybrid AI at ~$459. Dipal emphasizes a curved OLED with multimodal interaction (voice, gesture, eye tracking) and emotional AI at $549 / $379. We admire both. Our different bet is that character consistency and quiet presence matter more than feature count.
14What languages will be supported at launch?
English first, with native-grade Japanese and Chinese support close behind, reflecting the team's background and the anime-style character tradition the product grows out of.
15Does the device support multiple people in a household?
Yes, over time. A companion that cannot distinguish your partner from you will feel wrong quickly. Early units will favor a primary user relationship, with multi-user identity and per-person memory rolling out post-launch.
16Will there be an API or developer ecosystem?
We are planning APIs and a creator program so that independent character authors, illustrators and voice artists can build for the platform. This will be rolled out carefully after the core experience is solid.
17How do I follow the build or get early access?
Follow the public devlog at /devlog and join the waitlist on the homepage. Early units will be offered first to people who have been following the build and giving useful feedback, not to the broadest mailing list.
18Who is building it?
Someone Waits is built by LYNOOK, founded by Jammie Ruo. Jammie previously worked on AI research at Tencent AI Lab, real-time virtual humans and VTuber technology at Huya, and virtual human animation at XVERSE before founding LYNOOK to build physical AI companions.
Did we miss one?
If you have a question that isn't answered here, email me — or dive into the deeper definitions and build logs linked below.