Rebirth: I Want to Surf

"This is a smart speaker Echo launched by Amazon in November 2014."

"So far, its sales have reached 3 million units."

"It doesn't use buttons or remote controls. It has seven microphone arrays inside that can capture sounds within a range of about 7 meters. We give it a command and it's done.

It has three main functions: voice interaction, smart home control, and voice shopping.

We believe that this kind of smart speaker is the next popular product, not too big or too small, and domestic manufacturers may soon follow suit. Because it has a relatively low threshold and is easy to ship. "

As he spoke, Bai Yongxiang took out another dark blue cylindrical speaker with MEIZU's LOGO on it.

"This is our semi-finished product, the appearance has been determined, the height is 21.16 cm, the width and thickness are 8.8 cm, and the weight is 636 grams.

There are 6 sets of high-precision digital microphones hidden on the top of it, which can collect sound 360 degrees. In theory, as long as the sound is loud and clear enough for it to capture, it can respond.

Let me demonstrate it to you first..."

Bai Yongxiang rubbed his nose, showed an unconfident smile, took a few steps back, and called: "Xiaoxi!"

"I am here!"

A female voice that sounded like a human voice or a synthetic voice came out of the speaker. It was quite gentle and pleasant.

"Play Eason Chan's "The Best Bad Friend"!"

"OK!"

Immediately afterwards, a melody came out. The sound quality maintained the consistent standard of Meizu when it started making MP3 players. It was excellent. It sang: "Friend, I will be your friend for a second; friend, I will be your friend for the rest of my life..."

"Creek!"

"I am here!"

Bai Yongxiang called out again and the music stopped.

"The fairy tale "Snow White"!"

"A long time ago, there was a beautiful princess in the kingdom. Her hair was as black as ebony, her lips were as red as blood, and her skin was as white as snow..."

"Xiaoxi! BJ's weather today!"

"It's sunny in BJ today, the highest temperature..."

Yo ho!

After getting three correct guesses in a row, Bai Yongxiang's confidence skyrocketed and he signaled to everyone that he was going to work harder!

So he asked again: "Xiaoxi, are you hungry?"

"..."

No movement.

"Xiaoxi, have you eaten?"

"I am your smart voice assistant. I know many skills. I can help you check the weather, set the alarm clock, do math, tell stories..."

Bai Yongxiang twitched his eyes and said again: "Xiaoxi, let me say something, and you say something."

"Okay, please start!"

"The great Napoleon will arrive in his loyal Paris!"

"..."

No movement.

"I say something, you say something."

"Okay, please start!"

"The great Napoleon will arrive in his loyal Paris!"

"..."

Still no movement.

"Xiaoxi, didn't you start? Just tell me!"

Bai Yongxiang raised his voice.

"Okay, what do you want to say?"

"Xiaoxi, are you afraid if I tear it down for you now?"

"Your question puts a cloud on my voice."

"Can you respect me a little?"

"Life is so difficult, why are you trying to expose me?"

"Creek!"

"What do you want to say?"

"Ha ha ha ha!"

Bai Yongxiang was laughed at mercilessly by everyone. Yu Jiajia laughed so hard that she slapped her thigh and said, "Old Bai, are you smart or mentally retarded?"

"It's terrible! It's terrible!"

"It's over, it's over, Lao Bai's night is not guaranteed!"

Bai Yongxiang wiped his sweat and said helplessly: "This is the situation now, so I tell you, don't have high expectations. Now let's ask Dr. Wang Bin to tell us."

Wang Bin stood in front of the stage, and the big screen lit up, showing Xiaoxi's research and development process.

He tries to be as easy to understand as possible.

"We want to carry out voice interaction. First let Xiaoxi understand it. After understanding it, he can respond, and after responding, he can execute it.

The first hurdle is to wake it up.

When a user calls "Xiaoxi", the system can accurately identify which ones are calling it and which ones are not.

The success rate is very important. If the user calls ten times and fails once, everyone can still accept it. But if you call ten times and fail five times, then don’t sell the product.

We have made a huge database, including various materials such as different timbres, different accents, and different environmental sounds.

At the beginning, the male personnel entered the test and input enough corpus, and Xiaoxi was able to be awakened. But after his colleague took it home, he found that his wife could not wake up, so he recruited women for testing.

Later, it was discovered that children could not be awakened, so they began to recruit children again. However, it didn't go very well, as we couldn't find enough material for children to record. "

"I'll talk to the Changping Education Bureau and ask them to help. Is 200 children enough?" Yao Yuandao said.

"Enough is enough!"

"Well, keep going!"

Yao Yuan indicated that Wang Bin might have never been exposed to anything like this when he was doing scientific research before. He was stunned for two seconds before saying: "Through deep learning and continuous training and optimization, Xiaoxi can achieve the results we want.

The creek has ears and a mouth.

So there is also a set of speech generation technology that converts text into speech. What you just heard was made by us using anthropomorphic speech synthesis technology.

It is still a bit stiff now. The ideal effect is to be indistinguishable from a real person, even hesitation, pauses, speed changes, sighs, etc. when humans speak can be simulated, but this may be the result of a long time later. "

"..."

Everyone listened very carefully. Things that were taken for granted in later generations are almost the same as black technology now - even though it is only less than 10 years ago.

In fact, if you think about it, the Apple mobile phone was born not long ago, but it seems like it was last century.

Artificial intelligence, quantum mechanics, gene editing, AR/VR, nuclear fusion, space exploration, etc. These are relatively recognized projects that can have a huge impact on the next technological revolution.

Next year, China will issue a "New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan", emphasizing the need to vigorously develop AI.

Only then did the big manufacturers join the game, choosing smart speakers as a relatively easy-to-make product. Later, they were integrated with mobile phones, and many smart assistants appeared.

Tmall's Tmall Elf, Baidu's Xiaodu, Huawei's Xiaoyi, vivo's Xiaov, Oppo's Xiaobu, Xiaomi's Xiaoai...

When they were first launched, there was indeed a buzz, but everyone soon discovered that the gap between these products and their imaginations was too big. Just like when the metaverse emerged, the boastful human beings were about to enter a new era.

Result!

Humans can’t even cure hair loss, what a bastard in the Yuan Universe!

Therefore, Yao Yuan was the calmest person present. He knew the future development of this thing and was not excited at all. After Wang Bin introduced it, he cut off a function in the first sentence.

"Delete voice shopping, we don't need this thing."

Yao Yuan stood up, walked to the front, and said: "It's not about Amazon's functions, we just copy them. With the current technical level, we have to subtract. Don't think about eating a fat man in one bite."

(besides……)