Talking about smart home appliances: artificial intelligence and artificial mental retardation

One morning in the year of 202X, with the first greeting of the alarm clock "Master, the time to get up", the curtains began to open automatically, and a soft sunlight was projected into the room. At this time, the family robot opens the door and enters the bedroom. It has already prepared the clothes to be worn today according to your itinerary information. When you wash, the automatic bread machine also bakes the bread according to your taste, and heats the milk and eggs. .

After half an hour, you walked out of the door, the car in the garage had already turned on the air conditioner, adjusted the appropriate temperature, and boarded the car. At this time, the automatic dishwasher in the home has started to clean the dishes, the sweeping robot began to clean the room, clean the floor, and the washing machine began to wash the clothes that were replaced in the morning...

Does this scene sound like a science fiction movie? People have developed a lot of imaginations many years ago, but with the development of artificial intelligence technology (AI), the above scenarios are likely to be realized in the next few years, and more intelligent machines will appear in our lives. Just like Jarvis in the Iron Man movie, they can work actively according to people's preferences and orders, so that the time and energy required for ordinary people to handle daily chores is greatly reduced. Even in the case of home life, traditional home appliances will undergo revolutionary changes after encountering intelligent technology. The combination of the two will not only change the quantity, but change the quality. The life and work of human beings can be made easier.

It is precisely because of this, AI artificial intelligence has become the hottest market at present, regardless of computer manufacturers, home appliance manufacturers, and even Internet application manufacturers have joined the AI ​​technology, product development. In the home appliance market, a variety of artificial intelligence products have emerged, such as smart speakers, smart TVs, smart air conditioners, sweeping robots, intelligent robots, and even smart sockets, smart desk lamps, smart door locks, etc. And other products.

However, in fact, these current home appliances are still in the early stage of artificial intelligence products, far less intelligent and humanized. On the contrary, some products are old bottles of new wines. Next, let's take the smart speakers and smart sweeping robots in the field of artificial smart home appliances as an example to talk about the advantages and disadvantages of these smart home appliances.

Smart speakers: the most popular smart appliances, but the use is too limited

Smart speakers are arguably the earliest smart home products and are currently the hottest choice. If ordinary people consider smart home appliances, smart speakers are also the most approachable choice. At present, overseas companies such as Google, Amazon, and Apple have launched smart speaker products. Domestic companies such as Jingdong, Tmall, and Xiaomi have launched smart speaker products, while other lesser-known companies are also smart speakers. .

Smart speakers are not sought after by manufacturers. It is called "the speaker is actually a little wronged, because the manufacturer essentially sees it as a "smart assistant". Playing music is only a small function, and the core function is voice. Interaction, at this point, the smart speaker is very similar to Siri in the iPhone. The core is still speech recognition and interaction. The development goal is really like the AI ​​assistant in science fiction movies. The answer and the solution.

Although Google launched Home and Apple introduced smart speakers such as HomePod, the most successful smart speaker is Amazon Echo. Since its inception in late 2014, Echo has become the darling of the market. In 2016, it was sold in the market. 14 million smart speakers, an increase of 62% over the previous year, of which Amazon Echo accounted for 77% of the increase, which means that sold 5 million units last year, the global cumulative sales of more than 9 million units, sales far higher than the market On other smart speakers.

There are several reasons why Amazon Echo smart speakers are sold. In addition to being launched earlier, lower prices are also an important factor. However, Amazon's Alexa smart voice technology is absolutely indispensable. Users can control smart homes by adding Alexa, such as smart light bulbs, smart dimmers, smart sockets, smart door locks and so on. More importantly, Amazon is constantly enriching the functions of Alexa's smart assistants. In July this year, its number of functions has grown rapidly from the original dozens and hundreds to more than 15,000, far exceeding Google and Microsoft Voice Assistant. The number of features.

However, in such a complicated function, the functions commonly used by smart speakers are actually several. According to the statistics of American Statistra, the most common problem for consumers using smart speakers is the 60% ratio, followed by Just ask the weather, stream music again, and other reminders, calendars, and more.

This also illustrates a problem. Although the smart speaker is currently the hottest smart home appliance, the voice and control functions supported are more and more, but the core application is still a question and answer search, weather forecast, event reminder, etc. It has certain The intelligence, but still a little distance from the expected assistant. In addition, in the Chinese market, smart speakers are much less popular than the US market. One of the key reasons is that Chinese speech recognition is different from English, and the degree of localization is insufficient. Domestic consumers’ acceptance of smart speakers remains to be seen. Improve, otherwise it can only be a voice-controlled music player, sorry for the name of the intelligent assistant.

Smart sweeping robot: the most practical smart home appliances, but the mental retardation is good, "horrible"

If smart speakers are the most common smart home appliances, smart sweeping robots are the most practical products. Because it is not just a toy, it can really bring convenience to people. The sweeping robot can automatically clean the room. The consumer can set it for a period of time and wait for it to be automatically executed. If there is no power, you can charge it yourself. Are you saying that this is very convenient?

Talking about smart home appliances: artificial intelligence and artificial mental retardation

For intelligent sweeping robots, the core is path planning. Whether using laser positioning, image displacement positioning or wireless carrier positioning systems, the primary role of a smart sweeping robot is to ensure that it cleans the entire floor, rather than cleaning it up. Therefore, a good sweeping robot is very demanding on the algorithm, and the key to whether a sweeping robot can satisfy the consumer is here.

However, some users complained that their sweeping robots are too stupid, not artificial intelligence, but artificial mental retardation, which is simply terrible, because some sweeping robots can not accurately identify the path, causing it to be stuck in a certain position or Some places are not cleaned up and cannot be truly intelligent.

However, after reading these spit, there are even sweeping robots that are trapped and hurt. It is really unbearable to watch them stupid and stupid.

Comments: Home appliance artificial intelligence is in the ascendant, intelligence and mental retardation are only a little bit

AI artificial intelligence is a hotspot in the past two years. Because smart technology can liberate human operations and improve work and life efficiency, it is also useful in the field of home appliances that people are exposed to every day. Nowadays, we have been able to see more and more smart home appliances appearing in the market. Smart speakers and smart sweeping robots are just two representatives. More products are being intelligentized in AI. This is an unstoppable trend. With the development of technology, we will soon be able to see and experience the kind of intelligent life envisioned at the beginning. It may not be necessary to wait until 202X, and it is possible to realize this dream in 2020 after two or three years.

However, we must also see that AI artificial intelligence technology will also increase the requirements for home appliances. Smart speakers are not as simple as adding a voice recognition. Smart sweeping robots do not support wireless charging and automatic cleaning. If they want to change people's lives, they must really become "smart". After all, intelligence and mental retardation are only one line apart. If you don't get smart, you will become mentally retarded.

Editor in charge: Li Qun