OFweek smart home network news is not every Internet company has a hardware dream? Following the collective creation of mobile phones and bracelets, this year, Internet companies have collectively built smart speakers. There are Amazon Echo, Google's Google Home, and Apple's Homepod. Even the Japanese company Line, who is doing social and facial expressions, has announced that it wants to introduce smart speakers (or facial expressions). Chinese companies are not far behind, with Jingdong launching the trick, followed by a big ticket startup with relevant products on crowdfunding. Recent cool dog music, Himalayan and other content platforms also said that the introduction of smart speakers. Today to discuss, smart speakers in the end is the legendary Internet of Things entrance, or like the previous smart watch / bracelet, just a wave of fashion. If you must give smart speakers the next definition. . . . . . First of all, the concept of smart speakers is very vague. Many start-up companies call Bluetooth speakers and WiFi speakers as smart speakers... I can only say that if this can help you issue next month's salary, please use “smartâ€. Two words to name the product! To sum up the products on the market, we can boldly define some smart speakers: 1, has the basic functions of wireless WiFi, Bluetooth and so on; 2, In addition to the App, touch buttons, etc., you can also use the built-in microphone for voice interaction; 3, in addition to playing music, you can also undertake voice assistant work, connect other products; Based on these definitions, we can classify smart speakers into two categories. One is based on streaming media content and uses AI technology to optimize user experience. The other is based on voice interaction. Speakers serve as the entrance to the Internet of Things. The first kind of smart speaker We don't discuss it too much today. From a technical point of view, it is not too difficult to use voice-wakeup and voice interaction in streaming media scenarios. There are two real technical arena games, one is the recommendation algorithm of the streaming media platform itself; the other is whether natural language processing (NLP) can understand the emotions in the user language and thus interact and recommend more emotionally. . The former technology has emerged as early as ten years ago, and the latter technology, at least a lot of companies are currently working hard, there is still much room for improvement. In general, content-driven smart speakers have the advantages of platform brand appeal and content copyright library, which can be seen as a way for streaming service providers to realise their traffic. Internet of Things entrance? Is there something now available? Let's take a look at smart speakers such as JD.com and Amazon.com, which are trying to become the entrance to the Internet of Things. Amazon is the first player to enter this market, and it also holds the largest share in the global market - Echo and Dot products add up to nearly 40%, leaving Google, Microsoft, Apple, and other opponents far away Behind. However, on the key function of voice interaction, this smart speaker, Amazon's Alexa, Google Assistant, Apple's Siri, Microsoft's Cortana still have their merits. But is smart speakers better than voice interaction? At present, it is not. As the interactive portal of the Internet of Things, the key to smart speakers is "there is physical connection." - The ability to control more intelligent products is the key to improving the user experience. As for voice interaction capabilities, it only affects the accuracy of interactive control. ,is it convenient. Understand this point, we can probably understand Jingdong's "squeak." Jingdong seems to like the name “Amazon of China†very much. It also has its own business layout. Even if you don't have streaming media content or voice interaction technology, you have to launch smart speakers. Of course, Jingdong’s own name is "music robot." å®å’š This product was built by Linglong Technology, a joint venture between Jingdong and HKUST. In some of the previous media reports, the company’s CEO also revealed that the speaker environment is actually responsible for the traditional speaker manufacturers such as Edifier. Therefore, the hardware is a traditional speaker manufacturer, voice interaction technology is the information fly, Jingdong hardware doing? JD.com provides a Wi-Fi chip that allows home products equipped with this chip to be interconnected. At this time, we can see the difference between Amazon and JD. Amazon can open APIs to allow more partners to access Echo, while JD.com regards it as part of its “JD.com†IoT ecosystem. Whether it is an open ecosystem or a relatively closed ecosystem, we can see that the “smart home†that is now in our lives is still too little. It is not realistic to replace all home appliances in order to realize voice interaction, so intelligence The mission of the speaker to implement its Internet of Things entrance will take some time. Especially in China, all major manufacturers are pulling together to form their own Internet of Things (OS). It is even more difficult to control ecologically complex homes through an entrance. Why die? It is still a child In fact, I do not understand why the entrance to the Internet of Things must be a smart speaker? Regarding whether speech interaction is the most natural way for humans to interact with the physical world, this issue has been discussed in previous articles. Even with the use of speech to interact, smart speakers have limitations. The most obvious is the limited range of sound pickup, smart speakers in the living room, basically do not want to enjoy smart life in the kitchen. If you only use smart speakers as carriers for voice assistants, why can't you place sound collection devices in each room? Think about it, purely from the perspective of voice interaction, smart speakers may not be as good as the smart bracelet - there is no far-field interaction problems, with a simple screen display, you can also feel the body temperature and heart rate, etc., for further interaction. Last but not least, the key to the Internet of Things entrance must be technology, not a single product. The choice of speakers, smart wear, or implanted in home products is nothing more than user habits, especially when the Internet of Things is still relatively far away. When we choose speakers, we still refer to the brand, sound quality, and content resources behind it. . As for now several domestic smart speakers, can only be regarded as "other children have, I also want" type of business layout. As users, don't be too serious about them. Today's smart speaker boom, I would rather understand it as the product of the third consumer upgrade - we are no longer satisfied with mobile phones, need a better sound quality. Like the trend of smart wristbands a few years ago, the reason for its rise was the popularity of sleeping and sun drying, not the development of smart wearable devices. In many cases, market demand is developing. Why should we not exaggerate technological progress?