Apple and Google may think they have voice control of devices all sewn up with Siri and Google Now, but increasingly, new mobile and web experiences are being driven from China, as seen in Baidu’s massive developments of AI-driven voice and image search.
Now ZTE has formed the Smart Voice Alliance, whose members aim to establish an industry standard platform for voice control. Baidu is a founder member, predictably, along with China-based AutoNavi, now a subsidiary of Alibaba, and the Chinese Academy of Sciences.
But these days Chinese groups seek to lead global efforts, not stay insulated – so the initial backers also include several high profile US innovators, voice processing specialist Audience, voice recognition pioneer Nuance and AutoNavi. The group is looking for a broad membership including other handset makers.
The initial aim of the Smart Voice Alliance is to establish the ‘5A’ protocol as a standard platform for voice controlled technologies, in readiness for the expected transition from touchscreens as the main input method to smartphones, towards voice. This will be based around a database of 10m terms for voice recognition software; a foundation voice recognition system which can completely control the handset as soon as it is activated; and a set of guidelines for devices so that voice controls are suitable to any environment.
“ZTE believes that voice control is the future of smart mobile phones and it has already become ZTE’s core strategy. However, the current mode of touchscreen control is deeply rooted in the behavior of users. Change can only come when voice control becomes more practical,” the CEO of the vendor’s mobile devices unit, Adam Zeng Xuezhong, said.