Story ______ Zero UI Technology
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My Personal Assistant in My Hands
In ‘Consumer Electronics Show (CES) 2017’, new ‘Zero UI’ technology was presented to the public, a technology that enables users to operate their devices by voice command. As Apple has replaced physical keyboards on smartphones with touch-screen-based keyboards, this Zero UI can substitute for physical keyboards and/or touch-screens with the voice recognition technology.
No Need for Keyboards and Touch Screen Anymore with Zero UI
User Interface (UI) is a technology that helps users to interact with machines and devices. As the demand for more user-friendly interfaces that make the interaction between humans and information appliances (devices) more natural and convenient has continued to rise recently, we are witnessing the emergence of a whole new type of user interface designed to make machines cater to human needs based on diverse human senses, away from the conventional approach where humans are forced to adapt to screen-based devices. One of the most representative approaches is Zero UI. As implied by its name, Zero UI is a user interface technology where the device interacts with the user by recognizing his/her movement, voice, glance, and even thinking in daily routines. Among these, voice assistant technology realized by voice recognition is garnering remarkable attention from many global IT businesses. In general, this voice assistant technology consists of two parts: voice recognition where the device recognizes the user’s voice and then converts it into text and voice synthesis where the device responds to the user with its own voice. This voice assistant technology, which started off from word recognition where the device performs the input task by a short, word-based command, is making constant progress to a point where it interacts with the user more naturally and human-like, on the basis of dialogue analysis and/or semantic analysis.
Voice Assistants for Smartphones Developed by Global IT Powerhouses
A number of IT companies are now presenting their own voice assistant services for smartphones based on voice recognition technology. Apple was the early mover that pioneered the initial phase of this technology with ‘Siri’, its voice assistant service. By user’s voice directions, Siri downloads apps or finds out the details of the background music the user is listening, helping the users more effectively interact with their smartphones.
‘Google Now’ is a voice interface-based google search operating on various platforms. After launching Google Now, Google developed its own voice assistant service named ‘Assistant’, which provides a user-friendly and natural dialogue-based interface. Assistant can accurately identify and properly respond to the needs of the user, by utilizing extensive information held by Google via natural language-based voice recognition technology. Also, it can actually learn the propensity of the user by automatically extracting contexts from personal information as well as dialogue records of the user.
‘Cortana’, an AI-based voice assistant developed by Microsoft, manages the schedule of the user and performs web-searching for information via a voice interface. There is a virtual note called ‘Notebook’ where the personal information of the user and other data that Cortana can utilize in conducting its tasks are recorded. Of course, the user can manage and/or delete the information on the Notebook. Cortana interacts with the user with basic questions and 16 emoticons when the user first starts to use it. It is able to conduct a multi-level search where it can search for keywords in addition to the ones it searched before, by memorizing the dialogue it had with the user.
‘Alexa’ is a cloud-based voice assistant application developed by Amazon. Since it operates on the cloud, the more the user uses it, the more accurate and sophisticated services he/she can enjoy, thanks to data such as dialogue patterns and personal likings of the user accumulated on the cloud. Alexa is currently being applied to various commercial products, including home appliances (air purifiers, refrigerators, etc.), IT devices (home routers), and automobiles, gradually expanding its ecosystem.
My Home Assistant
Recently, AI speakers with voice recognition technology are providing more natural interfaces to users and are controlling IoT-based devices more effectively, serving as a hub in establishing a ‘Smart Home.’ The AI speaker market is now led by Amazon’s ‘Echo’ that came out on the market in November 2014 with Alexa embedded in it. In the form of a cylinder, Echo has an array of seven microphones tucked under the light ring of the top deck, so that it can hear the user’s voice command from 6 to 7 meters away, even in a noisy environment. It can also play music, provide relevant information to the user, and order products online.
Launched in 2016, ‘Google Home’ is a speaker-shaped AI assistant with the Google Assistant function. Google Home responds to the user, and can control multiple home appliances, including lighting and thermostats, by the user’s voice command. It provides a fairly convenient user interface to users since the user does not need to re-activate Google Home to give it questions/directions.
SK Telecom, Korea’s leading mobile telecommunication service provider, launched ‘Nugu,’ an AI speaker dedicated to Korean language. Nugu can turn on a music streaming service, control home appliances, and serve as a secretary managing the user’s schedule by being connected to a smartphone. The recognizable range of Nugu in terms of voice recognition is about two to three meters, making it the most optimized device for indoor use. Although at present it can provide satisfactory answers only to the questions embedded in the system, its voice recognition performance is expected to improve accordingly as the number of user increases and more data are accumulated.
Context Awareness-based Nero UI technology
Zero UI technology employing context awareness means that devices can learn about the user's life and recognize their surroundings independently, ultimately making user interaction with the devices close to zero. This is linked to ambient intelligence that recognizes the user's situation and provides the necessary services in the right place at the right time without the user's request. Many IT companies such as Nest, Ecobee3, Zuli, and Stack are presenting this ambient intelligence technology that intelligently controls air conditioning, heating, and lighting in the home. Most of the technology constantly learns the user's behavior on its own, so that it can adjust the temperature or dim light in advance before the user makes a request. What we are seeing now in terms of technological advancement is that the devices in our everyday lives are becoming smarter or interworking with some other devices. However, smart devices will be further developed to communicate with each other in the future, to an extent that they can better understand the context and provide an optimal user experience, ultimately minimizing the interaction between the users and devices.
Author: Chi Yoon Cheong, Senior Researcher, Technology Planning Research Group
