Orion Voice OS Powers Three of the Top Five Smart Speakers in China

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Nov 15, 2018, 09:00 ET

BEIJING, Nov. 15, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- The China Artificial Intelligence Industry Alliance (AIIA), a division of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology (MIIT), has announced the first five Chinese-made smart speakers to be certified under its smart speaker intelligence guidelines, including speakers from Cheetah Mobile, Xiaomi, Ximalaya, Baidu and JD.com. Among the five, three of them are powered (wholly or in part) by Orion Voice OS, a far-field voice control platform developed by Cheetah Mobile-invested AI company OrionStar. Cheetah Mobile's smart speaker, Cheetah Voicepod, and Ximalaya's Xiaoya smart speaker both utilize Orion Voice OS's complete suite of voice interaction technology, while Xiaomi's smart speaker uses its voice recognition and voice synthesis technology.

Cheetah Voicepod being awarded AIIA intelligence certification

"This certification represents a major milestone for Cheetah Mobile and our industry partners," said Bruce Wang, Chief Strategy Officer at OrionStar. "Intelligent voice technologies are becoming increasingly important, not just in smart speakers, but in all types of smart devices. We recognize that every user is different, so our number one goal is to provide comprehensive platforms and intuitive products that intelligently address the real-life needs of users."

Smart speaker products use voice recognition, voice synthesis, natural-language understanding, and other voice technologies to provide users with a more convenient and efficient way to consume information and content, but currently there are numerous types of smart speakers on the market with varying standards of quality. To address this issue, the AIIA formulated a smart speaker evaluation system to objectively assess smart speaker intelligence, in an effort to standardize the market, protect market order, and provide a trustworthy frame of reference for consumers. The evaluation process consists of 12 tests covering user security, voice recognition capabilities, wake up rate, and other intelligence indicators.

Of the five products certified by the AIIA, three of them utilize Orion Voice OS technologies. As of now, more than 30% of China's smart speakers utilize OrionStar's voice technology, satisfying more than 20 million requests per day. In addition to its smart speaker, Xiaomi's smart voice assistant "Xiao Ai", powered in part by Orion Voice OS, can be found on Xiaomi's entire suite of voice-controlled smart devices, with more than 30 million MAUs as of July 2018, according to Xiaomi.

OrionStar's Orion Voice OS integrates multiple far-field voice technologies, including voice wake up, voice recognition, semantic understanding and voice synthesis for faster and more precise interactions, with average response speeds of 1.5 seconds. It also has the highest long-range voice recognition rate in the industry, while possessing an extremely natural synthetic voice that gives users a more natural interactive experience. In addition to Cheetah Voicepod, Orion Voice OS technologies are being used by multiple industry partners, including Xiaomi, Ximalaya, Midea and Smartisan.

Cheetah Mobile's self-developed smart speaker, Cheetah Voicepod, features the highest rated sound quality in the industry according to blind listening tests. It was also recognized as having the "Highest Sound Quality of Chinese High-End Smart Speakers" by the Chinese Institute of Electronics. In terms of content, Voicepod users have access to more than 17 million songs through QQ Music, China's largest music streaming service, and another 100 million pieces of content from Ximalaya, Tencent News and other sources. At the same time, it also offers the industry's largest selection of children's content, including educational content, nursery rhymes and short stories.

About Cheetah Mobile Inc.

Cheetah Mobile is a leading mobile Internet company with strong global vision. It has attracted hundreds of millions of monthly active users through its mobile utility products such as Clean Master and Cheetah Keyboard, casual games such as Piano Tiles 2, and live streaming product Live.me. The Company provides its advertising customers, which include direct advertisers and mobile advertising networks through which advertisers place their advertisements, with direct access to highly targeted mobile users and global promotional channels. The Company also provides value-added services to its mobile application users through the sale of in-app virtual items on selected mobile products and games. Cheetah Mobile is committed to leveraging its cutting-edge artificial intelligence technologies to power its products and make the world smarter. It has been listed on the New York Stock Exchange since May 2014.

About OrionStar

OrionStar is an AI company in China with investment from Cheetah Mobile. The company was established in September 2016 by a group of technology industry leaders and product specialists from Silicon Valley, Japan, Taiwan, Beijing, and Shenzhen. OrionStar has developed a complete robotics technology chain, including a voice-controlled operating system, Orion Voice OS, visual recognition technology, indoor mapping and navigation system, and a back-end robotics platform, Orion OS. OrionStar is committed to using AI technology to develop the next generation of ground-breaking technology products and free people from the burden of overly complicated tasks, make homes more intelligent and create a better world through technology.

For more information about Cheetah Mobile and its products, please visit www.cmcm.com

SOURCE Cheetah Mobile