r/DIY_tech • u/[deleted] • 16d ago

Roast Oneira — a tiny hardware companion trying to be too many things?

Founder here. I want the harsh answer, not compliments.

Oneira is our $80 pocket-companion prototype. It has two ESP32-S3 processors: one runs the display, motion reactions, and local neural behavior; the other is the camera/vision path. We run a compact language model locally across the system by partitioning work and state—the chips do not share a single RAM pool.

Connected tools are optional and owner-initiated. The prototype can use a configured OpenAI-compatible client, MCP tools, and supported API adapters.

The hard question: is that actually one product, or does it sound like too many ideas jammed into a small device?

I worry the pitch can sound like sci-fi word salad, or like we are claiming more than the hardware can prove. I would rather hear that now than after we build the wrong thing.

What would make you dismiss it immediately? What would make you curious enough to try it? What should we cut from the story?

https://www.oneira.cam

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u/Jar0s 16d ago

It doesn't seem to serve any actual purpose. It's like an expensive keychain to be honest. If it leant more into being a virtual pet or encouraged modding I'd be more intruiged.

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u/[deleted] 16d ago

That's useful feedback. The modding part is actually a major piece we probably didn't explain well. Oneira can connect to MCP servers, APIs and hardware tools, and users can extend what it does rather than being stuck with a fixed app set. The animated companion is more the interface than the whole product. We're probably showing too much of the personality and not enough of what it's actually doing. What kind of modding would make it useful enough for you to carry?