Palo Alto, CA, February 6th, 2026, Chainwire
ZenO opens access to egocentric audio, video, and image data captured from smart glasses and smartphones to support the next generation of physical AI systems.
ZenO today announced the launch of its public beta. The platform collects, anonymizes, and structures real-world, first-person data for training physical AI systems such as robots, autonomous agents, and embodied models. ZenO will use Story’s Layer-1 blockchain technology as its core infrastructure.
The launch comes as physical AI moves from research into production. However, the data needed to power these systems has not kept pace. Robots trained on scraped web data or simulations struggle with everyday tasks that humans perform intuitively.
ZenO addresses this gap by enabling the collection of first-person, real-world data: what people actually see, hear, and do. This creates a new foundation for training embodied AI systems at scale.
Training on real-world, first-person data can help physical AI models better perceive their environments and generalize across unpredictable conditions. It can also help them perform tasks more accurately and reliably after deployment in the real world.
ZenO also recently joined NVIDIA Inception, a global program designed to support startups building advanced AI technologies. Through the program, ZenO is accelerating development of its Physical AI Data Network with access to NVIDIA’s GPU ecosystem, technical expertise, cloud infrastructure benefits, and go-to-market resources.
This support enables ZenO to scale enterprise-grade, rights-cleared data infrastructure for training robotics and embodied AI systems operating in complex physical environments.
The beta is built on ZenO’s existing MVP, now live atsource. It focuses on validating the end-to-end process for real-world data collection, from capture through quality assurance and anonymization. The beta will run for approximately 6–8 weeks.
Physical AI systems need egocentric data: what humans actually see, hear, and do in real-world environments. Unlike synthetic data or scraped online content, this data comes from people’s first-person experiences.
ZenO lets contributors capture continuous first-person audio, video, and images with ZenO-branded smart glasses or mobile phones. Contributors follow clearly defined data collection missions.
How the ZenO Beta Works
During the beta, users can:
- Capture real-world audio, video, and images from a first-person perspective
- Upload data through ZenO’s application for automated formatting and integrity checks
- Have data reviewed through a multi-stage QA process, including AI-based screening and human review
- Automatically anonymize sensitive information, including faces and identifiable text
After anonymization, contributors add structured metadata describing actions and environments in the footage. Approved datasets are then securely stored and cataloged within ZenO’s data marketplace infrastructure.
Incentives and Contributor Rewards
ZenO uses a two-stage incentive model for contributors:
- Immediate rewards for data collection, paid in XP during the beta phase
- Revenue sharing if the contributed data is sold, with contributors receiving a portion of downstream sales in stablecoins
This structure links contributor incentives to long-term data quality and commercial demand rather than one-time labeling tasks.
Hardware and Capture Options
ZenO’s smart glasses are manufactured through an OEM partnership and launched under the ZenO brand. Their specifications are comparable to leading consumer smart glasses.
The glasses support audio and video capture, hands-free operation, and all-day wearability. Contributors may also participate using smartphones, depending on mission requirements.
Onchain Foundations and Future Roadmap
During the beta, ZenO records wallet-signed consent and data identifiers onchain. This creates a verifiable record of contributor authorization and dataset provenance. Full IP and data rights management functionality is planned for a future release.
ZenO’s long-term roadmap includes writing metadata and licensing information for user-generated datasets onto Story. This would enable programmable data rights, transparent licensing, and automated revenue distribution for AI training data.
“The real world doesn’t look like the internet,” said Dawn Kim, Co-Founder of Zeno. “Physical AI systems need high-quality, rights-cleared, first-person data captured in real environments. This beta is about proving the foundation for how that data can be collected, structured, and used to train models that actually work outside the lab.”
ZenO is currently working with early data demand partners. It will share traction metrics after the beta period.
To learn more or join the beta, users can visit https://zen-o.xyz.
About ZenO
ZenO is a Physical AI data collection platform focused on capturing real-world, first-person (POV) human behavior for training robotics and embodied AI systems. Through smart glasses and smartphones, ZenO enables contributors to upload video and image data generated from everyday activities.
ZenO is designed to support scalable, compliant collection of real-world data for next-generation Physical AI systems.
About Story
Story is an AI-native blockchain network designed to serve as the provenance, licensing, and economic layer for AI data and models. Powered by the $IP token, Story enables datasets, models, and AI-generated outputs to be registered as intellectual property, licensed programmatically, and monetized with built-in attribution.
Backed by $136 million from a16z crypto, Polychain Capital, and Samsung Ventures, Story launched its mainnet in February 2025 and is building infrastructure for the AI economy.
By making IP native to the data and model lifecycle, Story provides the trust and economic rails required for AI systems to scale responsibly across enterprises, developers, and global markets.
Contact
Head Of Communications
HV
Story
henri.vies@piplabs.xyz
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