As Moore's Law predicts the future of technologies, the performance of processors improves exponentially at regular intervals without changing the price, thus reducing the popularization threshold and cost of various new technologies. This also happens to AI technologies. With the improvement of NPU computing capability and reduction of costs, AI empowers the vertical industry and promotes the emergence of various smart devices from smartphones, smart home to industrial robots, driving industries into the AI era.
Natural language processing (NLP) is the most mature technology in the AI field, showing that voice communication is the most direct interaction mode. Since the smart speaker can cover various scenarios of home life, it is the ideal carrier of voice interaction in the home, and then the controller of the smart home as the portal to search, e-commerce, content and social media. According to Ovum's latest research, over 30 brands of smart speakers are equipped with various voice assistants. By 2023, the total revenue from sales and service of smart home devices is expected to reach USD 154 billion. The annual sales of smart speakers is expected to increase from 61 million units in 2018 to 133 million in 2023. Smart speaker, which is indispensable for the development of online music subscribers and smart home, has undoubtedly become a must-have consumer electronic item.
As smart speakers become a member of more and more families, the following common problems occur.
Voice recognition is poor. The smart speaker cannot be triggered by the wake word or can be wrongly triggered by other words.
Functions are lack of diversity. Applications cannot meet the growing subscriber demand for entertainment, except for music and language programs.
Privacy and security are under threat. The microphone is always active and monitors the surrounding in real time, causing widespread concern about product security in the industry.
To address these problems, ZTE, with more than 20 years of experience in multimedia terminals, launches the All-In-One home media terminal integrating the smart speaker and 4K UHD STB functions (Fig. 1). This terminal effectively solves the pain points of the traditional smart speakers, delivering a better user experience and creating a perfect smart life.
Brand-New Interactive Mode
The traditional interactive mode of remote control, which has dominated STBs for a long time, has some intrinsic defects such as complicated operations and low efficiency. However, the All-In-One home media terminal is equipped with built-in microphone array and adopts the patented technologies of noise reduction and echo cancellation developed by ZTE. It offers a hands-free experience by adopting the natural language for interaction, and presents the accurate information and content searched from massive content and services, greatly improving the user experience and providing users with more choices.
Complete Ecosystem
The All-In-One home media terminal is equipped with the mature operating system and supports UHD 4K+HDR technology. By virtue of cooperation with many content providers, this terminal can bear many
video services such as OTT/IPTV, providing operators with complete service customization and extension capabilities.
Portal to Smart Home
The All-In-One home media terminal integrates the smart speaker and 4K STB, providing users with convenient human-machine interaction. By means of extension, it is able to control the smart home devices through IoT protocols including Bluetooth, Wi-Fi, Zigbee, and Zwave, and bring convenience to life.
Ultimate User Experience
The All-In-One home media terminal adopts the advanced 64-bit quad-core processor with built-in AI engine, providing a performance boost when performing mathematical operations. The built-in TEE security processing engine effectively protects users' data and privacy.
This product has been commercially available in China Telecom and will be widely promoted in its market. Featuring diversified services, it provides users with a wider range of professional services from operators.
In addition, as the demand for voice-enabled smart home and video services surges, the All-In-One home media terminal shows a huge potential in the global market. Integrating core services such as IPTV, smart home and IMS voice, this product can help operators build a smart home ecosystem with voice AI as the portal, smart home products as the bearer, and smart operations as traffic monetization methods, creating a win-win outcome for industrial partners.