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A smartphone user tries Baidu's voice input. The company is a member of a new patent alliance. Zhang Zhao / China Daily |
A number of major high-tech companies, including Baidu, Haier and ZTE, have established an alliance in Beijing to pool together intelligent voice patents in an aim to better integrate and develop existing technologies, China IP Magazine reported.
Voice interaction is increasing in popularity with the proliferation of smart mobile devices. The pool of patents would bring new opportunities for the development of voice technologies.
The alliance was proposed by seven companies including Baidu, Haier, ZTE, BAIC Motor and BOE Technology. It now has more than 20 members.
To promote advanced voice technologies, the alliance decided to open the patent pool to its members for free.
Its inauguration ceremony on Nov 27 attracted experts, as well as government officials from the Ministry of Industry and Information Technology, the State Intellectual Property Office, Patent Protection Association of China and the Beijing Intellectual Property Office.
The use of intelligent voice software has been increasingly applied in artificial intelligence, the mobile Internet, smart homes and wearable devices, said Lu Xi, deputy director of MIIT's technology department.
The establishment of the alliance would play a significant role in boosting the development of the smart voice industry, Lu said.
Ma Weiye, deputy secretary-general of the PPAC, suggested the association help member companies further commercialize patented technologies and promote the sharing of technologies across the industry.
Su Jing, director of Baidu's patent department, said at the ceremony that Baidu has filed over 400 smart voice patent applications and chosen a batch of 100 basic patents to be put into the pool.
She encouraged other member companies to share their related patents to effectively create open innovation and open up IP licensing.
Jia Lei, head of Baidu's voice technology department, introduced several "world-leading breakthroughs" that the company made in speech recognition and synthesis. For example, Baidu's new Chinese speech recognition system could reduce at least 15 percent in error rate and save investments for decoders.
The company has also developed "text to speech" voices that contain human emotions. Jia said these technologies would be widely used by member companies in the future.
