On April 25th, Baidu and KFC jointly launched the smart concept store “KFC original+” in Shanghai. The secret robot plays the role of waiter in the store, and consumers can directly experience a series of services provided by the robot.

The secret robot does not move, it needs to complete the service in a specific area. In the ordering area, consumers can complete the ordering with the secret robot through dialogue; in the holographic projection experience area, the secret robot displays the KFC's original chicken production process with 360-degree holographic imaging technology; consumers can also play music. The interactive area scans the QR code on the table and hears the music list recommended for the current scene.

“The secret is the secretarial flagship product released at the Baidu World Congress in 2015. It is a combination of Baidu's many artificial intelligence technologies. It coincides with KFC's desire to build a physical concept store that leads the industry in a milestone, so it is a hit with Baidu. The person in charge of the secret robot product told reporters that 'the combination of the secret robot and KFC's service scene can provide intelligent services and a fresh and convenient user experience for KFC consumers.'

Secret 'out of the mountain'

The secret was “out of the limelight” at the Baidu World Congress on September 8th, 2015.

Baidu founder Li Yanhong said at the conference that in the era of mobile Internet, China's O2O field has already taken the lead in the world. “There are 55 of every 100 movie tickets in China that are booked online, and the film industry has a penetration rate of only 20% in the US; the Internet penetration rate in the Chinese food and beverage industry is 2%, and the US is 1%.” Education, The medical, financial, and daily life services are rapidly connecting from the Internet to the Internet. In view of this, Li Yanhong believes that 360 lines are splitting into 3,600 lines. How do consumers find valuable consumer information in the complicated 3600 lines? The answer given by Baidu is 'degree secret.'

Baidu provides an open interface for the underlying 3600 lines, and O2O service information from all walks of life can be connected to Baidu servers. Baidu mines the entire network data to establish a multi-level index dimension. The secret is the 'terminal' that can interact with people through language after integrating the above information data. 'The secret is not only Baidu's latest product, it is also a capability. This ability is not only in the mobile phone Baidu, but will be gradually added to other Baidu apps in the future.' Li Yanhong said, 'The mobile Internet era, Any kind of APP can connect the ability of 'degree secret'.'

The 'secret robot' in the KFC original+ concept store is a product that combines the body hardware with the secret system. In terms of functions, the voice system applied by the secret has been applied in Baidu search, translation and other Baidu products. The person in charge of the above products said that Baidu voice technology has accumulated in many technical directions such as text comprehension, user understanding, and intelligent interaction. With this accumulation, the secret robot can achieve multiple rounds of complex interaction with consumers. Baidu said that this language interaction system is based on artificial intelligence technology, which can learn people's language in interaction, thus 'becoming smarter and faster.'

It is understood that the debut of the secret robot KFC is the first attempt of Baidu artificial intelligence technology to enter the offline daily service scene. 'At present, the focus of the secret business is also on the enhancement of the secretarialization capabilities of its core link services. The actual integration with various business scenarios is still in the exploration stage, and cooperation other than KFC is temporarily inconvenient to disclose.' .

On the eve of the service robot outbreak?

Huang Wei, CEO of Beijing Yunzhisheng Information Technology Co., Ltd. believes that artificial intelligence technology is a long-term goal, but in the process of implementation, there must be practical commercial technology to help robots enter our lives. “It is a good choice to try to promote product development by combining scenes with artificial intelligence technology. Because of the specific application scenarios, the technical requirements for the technology will be relatively reduced. In addition, the current technology can solve the user needs and easily reach better users. Experience. This will promote consumer interest in artificial intelligence.'

Liu Xuenan, CEO of Beijing Kangli Youlan Robot Technology Co., Ltd. believes that it is in the early stage of the service robot market. He divided the functions of the robot into 'fun' and 'useful'. 'Looking at 'useful', now the robot is not perfect, many useful functions are to be developed; but combined with 'funny', the market is just right.' Liu Xuenan told the 21st Century Business Herald, 'The robot industry application-level running-in, application-level The comprehensive integration of creativity and rich technology has just begun. However, the humanization attribute and social attribute construction of the robot ontology have not yet started, because the total amount of robots is still relatively small.'

Liu Xuenan and Huang Wei's confidence in the robot industry comes from the accumulation and progress of technology. The indoor movement is faced with the double test of safety and precision, and the indoor positioning technology is the first difficulty to make the robot move. Liu Xuenan admits that indoor positioning is still 'urgent demand', but currently with SLAM (synchronous positioning and mapping) technology has been able to solve some of the needs. 'Future robots will use 3D vision and positioning technology in a comprehensive way, not by a single technology. Now the technology can be applied and corrected.' Huang Wei told reporters that voice and semantic recognition in noisy environments can also increase the number of microphones and The implementation of optimization algorithms and other methods, 'has been relatively well solved.'

The main reason why robots are still difficult to market at present is that the products are not yet truly intelligent. The hardware experience has not yet reached the imagination of people. As far as the secret robot is concerned, the mobile phone is still an indispensable auxiliary tool throughout the service chain. For example, the payment link and music interaction require the mobile phone to scan the QR code to complete. In this regard, Huang Weiye admits that there are many imperfections in artificial intelligence. 'Artificial intelligence has experienced two peaks and valleys in the history. User expectations and the development of artificial intelligence industry need to be rationally guided. The user's cognition and expectation are a gradual process. But now the industry is in a good opportunity period, and it will develop in time. ”