From buttons to voice: the evolution of home appliance interaction

Home appliances play an indispensable role in people's daily lives and are also an important part of improving people's sense of happiness. Do you know the development history of home appliances?

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1970s

The "four major items" that are popular for weddings are: a watch, a bicycle, a sewing machine, and a radio, which together form the "three turns and one ring".

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1980s

With the deepening of reform and opening up, China's economy began to develop rapidly, and the "new three items" of black and white televisions, refrigerators, and washing machines became people's new demands for life.

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1990s

Color TVs, refrigerators, and fully automatic washing machines began to enter ordinary households in large numbers and quickly became popular. By the end of the 1990s, household appliances had transformed from luxury items to necessities.

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2000s to present

In the 2000s, as people pursued a high-quality life, the commonly used TVs and washing machines could no longer meet people's needs. Various home appliance brands emerged like mushrooms after a rain, and microwave ovens, range hoods, refrigerators, rice cookers, range hoods, ovens and other home appliances have become a must-have in the home.
From the 2010s to the present, new products such as dishwashers, sweeping robots, vacuum cleaners, water heaters, tea bar machines, and clothes drying machines have been born, making people's lives more convenient.

Along with the changes in the categories and functions of home appliances, the human-computer interaction mode of home appliances is also quietly changing.

01

Mechanical buttons

The earliest mechanical key technology appeared on typewriters, such as the Remington No. 2 typewriter that appeared in the 1880s. With the development of computers, mechanical key technology was gradually applied to computer keyboards. Later, mechanical keys were gradually applied to various control devices. Early home appliances used mechanical keys as the main way to interact with users. For example, home appliances such as televisions, radios, and VCRs are equipped with mechanical keys. Users press or rotate buttons to switch channels, adjust volume, or perform other operations.

02

Infrared remote control

In 1955, American engineer Eugene Polley invented the first wireless remote control, Zenith Space Command, which used electron tubes and infrared light to send signals to control televisions. Then, in 1960, Japan's Sharp Corporation further improved infrared remote control technology and applied it to televisions. Since then, infrared remote control technology has become a widely used standard control method in home appliances, sending infrared signals through remote controls to control devices such as televisions, air conditioners, and DVD players. Users can perform various operations by pressing buttons on the remote control, such as adjusting brightness and selecting menu items.

03

Touchscreen

In 1965, Professor EA Johnson proposed the idea of ​​the first capacitive touch screen. After that, different types of touch screen technologies emerged, including resistive, capacitive, surface acoustic wave, etc. The first commercial product using touch screen technology can be traced back to the IBM Simon smartphone released in 1993. Later, touch screens began to be widely used in the field of home appliances. Touch screens allow users to operate directly on the display without the need for additional mechanical buttons or remote controls. Home appliances such as range hoods, refrigerators, and washing machines gradually adopt touch screens as the main human-computer interaction method, and users can control the device through icons and menus on the touch screen.

04

Mobile APP/Mini Program

In 2008, Apple launched the iPhone 3G and released the iOS App Store on it. Other smartphone manufacturers also launched their own operating systems and app stores.

Since then, mobile apps have experienced explosive growth and development, with applications of various types and functions emerging. In 2017, WeChat launched mini-programs, which are fast to start and take up less memory, and are favored by enterprises and users. The birth of apps/mini-programs has also established a connection between home appliances and mobile phones. By installing the corresponding apps/mini-programs, users can remotely control and monitor home appliances. For example, users can use mobile apps/mini-programs to adjust the temperature of the air conditioner, start the washing machine, check the food storage in the refrigerator, etc.

05

Voice Interaction

With the development of artificial intelligence technology, voice interaction has gradually become an important interactive method for home appliances in recent years. Voice interaction is divided into online voice interaction and offline voice interaction. Online voice interaction can be assisted by voice assistants (such as Amazon Alexa, Google Assistant and Apple Siri), while offline voice interaction is mainly based on intelligent voice chips. Users can control home appliances through voice commands without using apps, remote controls or touch screens. They only need to say specific command words and the device will perform corresponding operations, such as turning on the device, playing music, checking the weather, etc.

Compared with mobile APP/Mini Program, voice interaction has more natural advantages:

1. Voice interaction is more direct and convenient. Through simple verbal instructions, users can easily control the device without tedious manual operation or opening the application on the phone for settings.

2. Voice interaction eliminates the limitations of the visual interface. Mobile APPs/applets usually require users to complete operations by touching the screen, while voice interaction is not limited by time and space. Users can control the device through simple voice commands when driving, exercising, or other situations where they cannot use their mobile phones, providing greater flexibility and convenience.

3. Compared with the traditional graphical user interface, voice interaction is more natural and humane, simulating the conversation between people. Users can communicate with the device in a more natural way and enjoy more intelligent and personalized services.

Qiying Tailun: Pioneer and leader in the offline intelligent voice chip industry

Qiyingtailun was founded in 2015 and focuses on the research and development of intelligent voice chips and algorithms. As a pioneer and leader in the offline intelligent voice chip industry, it has released 15 chips so far, including AI voice chips, AI voice WiFi Combo chips, and AI voice BLE chips.

The AI ​​voice series chips integrate the self-developed brain neural network processor BNPU V3, which has the advantages of high integration, high performance, and low power consumption. It can realize far-field offline voice interaction with a recognition rate of over 97%.

In order to provide diversified and personalized solutions, Qiyingtailun launched the AI ​​Voice WiFi Combo chip CI230 series and AI Voice BLE chip CI231 series. The CI230 series chip integrates BNPU V3, supports 2.4 GHz 802.11 b/g/n Wi-Fi and BLE 5.1 ​​wireless communication protocols, and can realize offline voice control + online APP/applet control + cloud content acquisition. The CI231 series chip integrates 2.400~2.483GHz world-wide ISM frequency band wireless transceiver chip, embedded with baseband communication protocol, and can realize offline voice control + applet BLE control.