Xiaodu artificial intelligence speaker 1S review: 149 yuan how to "modify" traditional home appliances?

On the smart home, it may not be as far away as we think. In December last year, Kan Technology Channel was invited to experience the Shanghai Shenkeng hotel Xiaodu home hotel version. Baidu's artificial intelligence and the hotel's deep integration, the use of Xiaodu Home Hotel Edition to achieve voice control of the room lights, air conditioning, curtains / curtains and other equipment.

At that time, we could not have imagined that five months later we would not have to stay in the hotel to enjoy the intelligent life of controlling home appliances by moving our mouths.

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This all started with the release of Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S on April 18th, and as an upgrade, the biggest improvement of Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S is the addition of the infrared remote control function, which can be used to intelligently transform traditional home appliances, such as air-conditioning, TVs, and set-top boxes, etc.

The traditional home appliances can also be controlled by the infrared remote control function.

Intelligent transformation of traditional home appliances: just move your mouth

Baidu's official definition of Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S is that it is both an AI speaker and a universal remote control. As one of the biggest selling points, Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S can control most of the mainstream brands of air conditioners, TVs and operator set-top boxes on the market.

On this point, in fact, there are many companies previously realized intelligent control, such as millet. However, Xiaomi's smart control must be its ecological chain of products, there are also some with the help of smart home accessories can be realized, but slightly cumbersome.

Overall the previous smart home control has two shortcomings: relatively high threshold and cumbersome steps. After we experienced Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S, we found that these two shortcomings were solved.

Since the operator set-top box was not installed, we made use of the TV and air conditioner to do the test.

1 Smart TV is smarter

The first preparations to be made are to connect as well as configure Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S, turn on the TV.

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When you are ready, say "Xiaodu Xiaodu, connect to TV" to the speaker, and start "upgrading" the TV.

From the video, we can see that the whole process is smooth and simple, basically in about 40 seconds to complete the control of the TV.

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After sending a command to Xiaodu to connect to the TV, it will send a test signal to the TV in about 35 seconds, and then the TV will appear on the shutdown screen, which proves that Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S has completed the control of the TV, and then you can control the TV on and off and the volume level through Xiaodu.

It is equivalent to the speaker becoming an auxiliary remote control for the TV. In some specific scenarios, such as not being able to find the remote control, you can use your voice to turn the TV on or off, or if the remote control is far away and not convenient to use, you can directly use voice control.

There is also a greater role for families that use set-top boxes. For example, my mom, the elderly can not adapt to the dazzling interface of the smart TV, so she preferred to use the HD set-top box issued by the broadcaster to watch digital TV. If access to Xiaodu AI speaker 1S, then my mom can just open her mouth, you can adjust the TV channel adjustment, volume adjustment, set-top box switch and other most practical functions.

Unlike smart TVs, set-top boxes have the most important functions of channels, volume adjustment, and switching, which means that parents can basically give up the remote control if they have access to Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S.

2 traditional air conditioning can also be "obedient"

Next, we test the air conditioning, my home air conditioning belongs to the wall-mounted, and not the mainstream Gree, Midea, Haier and other brands, but Mitsubishi. To be honest, the air conditioning test I did not have as much confidence as the TV, after all, Mitsubishi is not a mainstream brand, in case of non-adaptation can be how good.

In accordance with the steps to connect the TV, we said to Xiaodu AI speaker 1S, "Xiaodu Xiaodu, connect the air conditioning", followed by Xiaodu prompted to say the air conditioning brand, when I answered the Mitsubishi, Xiaodu told me to go to the cell phone App operation, fortunately, as long as it is adapted to the line.

Then I went into the mobile app of Xiaodu speaker to operate.

After entering the App you need to manually add the device, search for Mitsubishi, this time there are two Mitsubishi we choose the second, and then click on the start of the test, the first time did not succeed, the second time normal open, complete the adaptation.

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Here it should be noted that, can not be directly adapted by voice may be due to the air conditioning brand and equipment is too old, generally like the United States, Gree and other common brands can be directly adapted by voice, without manual operation. But even the niche Mitsubishi Heavy Industries air conditioning, Xiaodu AI speaker 1S can be adapted, so basically we do not have to worry.

After adding successfully, you can control the air conditioner, turn on/off, adjust the temperature, switch modes and so on without problems.

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Regarding the number of home appliances supported by Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S, Baidu officially said that at present Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S has supported 231 air conditioning brands, 370 TV brands and 123 set-top box brands, so it basically covers most of the traditional common home appliances on the market.

What's more, Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S is basically a zero-threshold smart home "hub device", which can control most of the traditional home appliances in your home through infrared. In addition to air conditioning, TV, like some families will also install remote control switch chandelier and use the remote control fan and so on.

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Of course, if you don't have a lot of infrared devices in your home, in the Xiaodu speaker app we see that there are also specialized accessories for sale, such as light bulbs, sockets and so on.

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In addition, you can see some smart devices that are already connected to the Internet, such as Oribe, Skyworth Love Home, and more than 100 other brands, which means that if you already have these smart home devices installed in your home, you can use Xiaodu Speaker for voice control through account authorization.

Social: voice call & message experience

Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S added the voice call function, the speaker can later exist as a communication tool, but how to use this function?

First of all, we have to open the call section in the "My" interface of the cell phone app, and then change the business card column to a simple name, otherwise, like me, it is the default Baidu account ID a string of alphanumeric, it is very troublesome to make a call.

After the setup, we can make calls to and from the speaker. In the app interface, you can directly click the phone button, in the speaker side you need to say "Xiaodu Xiaodu, call Wang Dafu" can be.

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After testing, we found that both the call response speed and call quality are very good. However, one thing may not be convenient enough, if you call the phone through the speaker, the phone will only feel the incoming call vibration under the lock screen or other app interface, and will not be strong reminder.

There is also a point that the current call function only supports their own cell phone app to call their own speaker, it is said that the follow-up will be online address book to add friends function, then you can call friends through the speaker.

Next is the message function, Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S supports speakers and cell phones to send and listen to each other's messages. The specific operation is also very simple, in the cell phone side click on the message, like sending WeChat voice can be. Speaker side in the receipt of this message will have "Dingdong" a prompt sound, if you miss the prompt sound we can say "Xiaodu Xiaodu, check the message" on the line.

Similarly, on the speaker side, you can say "Xiaodu Xiaodu, send message" and follow the prompts to send it.

The new appearance: sound positioning light band

Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S in the appearance of the mountain compared with the previous overall changes, the difference is that there is a 360-degree arc on the top of the respiratory light band, this light band has a sound positioning function, will follow the direction of the user's voice to locate the lighting effect, but also according to the use of different functions of the lighting effect.

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For example, the network distribution mode shows an orange color, a red sector when the microphone is disabled, and a red ring light band when the network is down.

Of course, in terms of hardware configuration Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S still maintains a strong itself. Equipped with ARM low-power, highly integrated Cortex A53 quad-core processor, special ring microphone design to ensure easy wake-up, but also supports Wi-Fi networking voice to find a song as well as Bluetooth playback of cell phones and tablets with audio content.

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Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S also supports DLNA wireless music projection, allowing songs from music apps to be played to Xiaodu Speaker.

Massive content as well as new experiences

Kan Technology Channel has successively reviewed various versions of Xiaodu smart speakers, and is quite familiar with the content piece. First of all, in the music, Xiaodu integrated QQ music library, basically listening to songs do not worry.

Secondly, in terms of audiobooks, Xiaodu has more than 30 audiobook content partners to support, and the resources cover a variety of fields such as music, education, entertainment, finance, etc.

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Finally, Xiaodu speaker app on the skill store, there are already a lot of skills can be used.

In addition to the standard hardcore appearance, sound quality and content, Xiaodu AI Speaker 1S also has a new way to play on experience optimization.

Scene service: a greeting can enjoy personalized scene service, including personalized information and content resources, reducing the user's path of use and making it easier for users to access quality information and resources.

User: Xiaodu Xiaodu, good morning

Xiaodu: Good morning, it is now 9:47, today is April 20, 2019, Saturday, the first 16th of March on the lunar calendar, it is the valley rain oh! Did you know that this is the last festival of spring .....

Xiaodu Trainer: provides a large number of interesting and fun combinations of scenes, timed to actively play for you, while you can also customize the password, a sentence for Xiaodu to answer the results you set.

Timed playback of music/news/audio/sentence/etc./c./customizable passphrase, one sentence corresponds to the set result

Alarm clock: Wake-up service for users to get up. It adopts soothing music recommendation, and the music is from weak to strong to make the process from deep sleep to waking up more comfortable for users.

Summary: A smart speaker that is well worth experiencing

This is the sentence that popped into my head immediately after the experience, whether it's the huge amount of music and audible content, or the call and message function, and the powerful home appliance control, Xiaodu Artificial Intelligence Speaker 1S has left a deep impression on me.

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The reason is that by replacing the remote control and combining the AI voice to achieve control, greatly reducing the cost of intelligent transformation of home appliances, as long as the appliances support infrared, and even do not need to buy accessories socket, the cost is only a 149 yuan speaker only.

However, there are shortcomings. Infrared is different from Bluetooth or WIFI, it must require appliances and speakers can not have obstacles between, otherwise it will block the signal and can not control. This also means that homes with many rooms need to be equipped with multiple speakers to facilitate control of appliances within the effective range.

In addition, the distance of the speakers can not be too far from the appliances, we are in the pairing process speaker prompted by the optimal distance of 3 to 5 meters, if your home living room is very large, appliances and appliances are far away from each other, then you need to reasonably plan the optimal location of the speakers to ensure that it can be connected to each device.

However, overall, the experience of simple operation and accurate control gives this smart speaker, which costs only $149, more value for money. And according to the latest data, Baidu smart speaker shipments have jumped to the second place in the Chinese market, which shows that Baidu's output in the field of artificial intelligence technology and the integration of the overall ecosystem has stepped up to a new level.