Voice input technology will occupy an important position in the 5G era

This week, American investment institution Mangrove Capital Partners released the 2019 "Voice Technology Report" titled "Voice: Welcome to the Next Generation of Disruptors". This report summarizes the current development of voice input and predicts that voice input will occupy an important position in the upcoming 5G era. Keyboards may basically die out in the next 5 to 10 years.

The report points out that after years of using keyboard input and touch gesture input, we are returning to the original "user interface": voice. Unlike text and touch gesture input, voice basically has no learning cost. With considerable progress in both speech recognition (speech to text) and natural language processing (recognizing instructions in text), voice input is no longer imperative but more like natural language communication. Together with artificial intelligence, voice technology will fundamentally change the relationship between people and machines.

The report also points out that with the gradual promotion of 5G commercialization, the popularization of 5G networks will greatly increase users' demand for mobile phone input efficiency, and traditional keyboard typing may be replaced by more efficient voice input. According to the user share data of the three major mobile phone input methods, voice input has exceeded 30%, and the iFlytek input method has topped the list with a share of 61%.

At present, voice has been widely used in input methods, smart assistants, and has begun to serve as the entrance to smart homes and the Internet of Things. Through Apple's HomePod and Amazon's Alexa, more and more smart home devices have realized voice control. Although screen gesture operation is still a way of input interaction when using devices such as computers and mobile phones, the keyboard is likely to become redundant.

After 5G networks become popular, the low latency feature will also make voice interaction more efficient. Take the common voice-controlled smart speaker devices as an example. Due to the limitations of their own processing performance and network latency, the response is always a beat slower in experience, or the limited computing power makes it difficult to understand our complex sentences.

5G low latency allows smart speakers to communicate with servers through the 5G network at all times. With the help of cloud computing, the computing power has been greatly improved, and the recognition of natural meaning will be more efficient. Similarly, in mobile phone input interaction, the typing keyboard input method, which currently occupies an absolute mainstream position, may be replaced by voice input with the arrival of 5G. This is due to the input efficiency. Ordinary people input 40 words per minute, while using voice can easily increase this number to 400.

Take the iFlytek Input Method, which currently occupies an absolute leading position in the voice input market, as an example. iFlytek Input Method can provide a very good experience in voice input. Since 2010, iFlytek has gradually improved the voice input method, and after empowering AI artificial intelligence, it has greatly improved the voice input experience. In the recently launched iFlytek Input Method 9.0 new version, in addition to further improving the voice recognition rate and input experience, a new voice-free switching input function has been added. There is no need to switch between Chinese, English, and Mandarin dialects multiple times. Just press the key and speak for accurate recognition.

At present, iFlytek input method can support voice input in up to 23 dialects, covering most regional dialects. Even if it is a dialect mixture or a Chinese-English mixture, iFlytek can accurately recognize the input, which is closer to daily speaking habits. Therefore, it received a user satisfaction score of 4.6 in the Sino report. The Mangrove report also introduced the analysis of voice technology financing. Voice technology startups have raised $786 million this year, far exceeding the $581 million in 2018 and $298 million in 2017. This gives us a glimpse of the current market's optimism about the future prospects of voice technology.

At China Mobile's "Gigabit Leading Ecosystem Empowerment" Cooperation Conference in June, Liu Qingfeng, Chairman of iFlytek, delivered a speech, introducing iFlytek's pioneering voice interaction standards in the era of the Internet of Everything. iFlytek's virtual anchors, translators and other products have been widely used, and there are already 1.05 million entrepreneurial teams on the iFlytek platform. The artificial intelligence platform will be combined with China Mobile's digital home open platform to create ecological support for 5G digital homes.

Indeed, as 5G communications are about to become popular, it is not just the speed of mobile devices that will change, but 5G networks will also affect every aspect of our lives. At the end of Mangrove's report, it was pointed out that although the experience of voice input cannot immediately replace keyboard, screen touch and other input methods due to technical reasons, and there are also issues such as privacy protection that need to be resolved, this technology will drive a new wave of productivity improvement, benefiting consumers, businesses and society. It will also allow more elderly people and the approximately 774 million illiterate people around the world to use the Internet more conveniently and enjoy the convenience brought by digital life.