Yesterday, Baidu unveiled the first two of its home robots and a smart speaker that is powered by DuerOS. The devices debuted at the Baidu World Conference, held in Beijing.
The three devices are parts of a new Raven lineup. Over 100 appliances such as smartphones, refrigerators, televisions, and washing machines use DuerOS. The Raven lineup includes the first Baidu devices that use the operating system for AI services.
First, with the Baidu robots, the Raven R home robot has an LED display and can swivel and move to mimic emotions and expressions. The second Baidu home robot, the Raven Q, will consist of DuerOS with natural language processing and computer vision for constructing 3D models out of its surroundings.
Check out Raven R being assembled and then glimpse its action in the video below.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?time_continue=60&v=CoGXbPOUYKI
Next, the Raven H smart speaker, designed by Teenage Engineering and Raven Tech, packs an LED display touch controller. This controller is detachable and has voice controlling abilities via Wi-Fi. It can control the Raven series and smart home devices as well.
Get hold of how Raven H would ‘play some soft music for you in the following demo.
The conversational AI technology used in the Baidu devices is quite the same as that of Cortana (Microsoft) and Alexa (Amazon). With the DuerOS, this AI, just like other AI assistants, can search the web, perform transactions, create reminders, play music, and can even control the smart home devices.
The Raven lineup got its name from Raven Tech, a startup Baidu acquired in February. Cheng Lyu of Raven Tech became the Manager of the intelligent hardware unit of Baidu.
Lyu shared the following statement with VentureBeat regarding the Raven lineup: “Each product in our new Raven series is integrated with Baidu’s latest AI technologies, including facial recognition, computer vision and even our Apollo autonomous driving technology.”
He further said that the three Baidu devices may seem little as compared to the historical lineup of today’s technological progress, but these are worthwhile as assistants in daily life, and can even bring amazing experiences that were once seen only in sci-fi movies.
The Raven H goes on sale next month for $256. As emailed by a Baidu spokesperson, release dates and price rates are yet to be decided for Raven Q and Raven R.
