Bytes of the first AI hardware, just a quiet test of water？

Source: Geek Park

ByteDance, who just bought the open earphone brand Oladance a few months ago, released the first generative AI hardware device.

On the morning of 10th, ByteDance Doubao released a hardware product-AI intelligent earphone Ola Friend. This product is an open earphone, 6.6 grams per ear is the lightest of its kind; Can be connected to the bean bag model and deeply integrated with the bean bag APP; Pre-sales have been started on major e-commerce platforms, and will be officially delivered on October 17, with a price of 1199 yuan. One price comparison is that Apple’s latest AirPods 4 active noise reduction model is priced at 1399 yuan.

After wearing headphones, users don’t need to turn on their mobile phones. They just need to shout out the keyword "bean bag bean bag" to arouse the bean bag to have a dialogue, which can help users in information inquiry, travel, English learning and emotional communication.

Since the beginning of this year, with the acceleration of the application of large-scale models, AI hardware has mushroomed, and new products such as AI mobile phones, AI headsets and AI glasses have emerged one after another. Even Apple can’t help but leave, not only in the new iPhone and the new version of iOS, but also to make AI glasses.

Who can become the first entrance for users to interact with artificial intelligence in the AI ​ ​ era? Today, it seems that smart glasses and smart headphones are the most likely hot candidates. Obviously, the bytes acquired by Oladance and Pico will not be missed, and Ola Friend is the first card played by bytes.

01 Ola Friend: byte version of "Her"

The release of Bytes was very low-key, and even the conference was not held. It was only published online on official accounts such as WeChat WeChat official account and Xiaohongshu.

Judging from the information posted on the page, Ola Friend focuses on companionship. "TA is an AI friend who is always in your ear. When you need it, TA is always in your ear. 」

Image source: Ola Friend

Ola Friend is an open earphone, 6.6 grams per ear is the lightest of its kind, and it is said that it has achieved almost no feeling of wearing. This headset is connected to the bean bag model and deeply integrated with the bean bag APP.

After wearing headphones, users don’t need to turn on their mobile phones. They just need to shout out the keyword "bean bag bean bag" to arouse the bean bag to have a dialogue, which can help users in information inquiry, travel, English learning and emotional communication.

At present, Ola Friend has started pre-sales on major e-commerce platforms, and will be officially delivered on October 17, with a price of 1,199 yuan.

As the first AI hardware product based on bean curd model, the launch of Ola Friend means that the AI ecosystem in ByteDance is further improved from hardware to content.

The hardware of Ola Friend headphones was completed by the original Oladance team recently acquired by ByteDance. The team is famous for its innovative OWS patented technology. Although the merger did not cause a particularly big wave when it was completed, people in the industry are discussing that ByteDance’s intention is very clear-to deeply integrate AI with earphone products.

The so-called OWS, namely Open Wearable Stereo, an open wearable stereo system, is a brand-new sound solution put forward by Oladance globally.

Compared with traditional bone conduction headphones, OWS headphones use air conduction technology to transmit sound to the ear through bones and bypass the eardrum, which is more natural. At the same time, bone conduction headphones need to be closely attached to the head, which may not be suitable for wearing for a long time. OWS headphones are not in the ear and do not need to be attached, which is more comfortable and more suitable for wearing for a long time.

Oladance was previously acquired by ByteDance, which held 100% of the brand. Oladance was founded in 2019 by former BOSE executive Li Haogan and several BOSE engineers. Its core product line includes OWS fully open true wireless Bluetooth headset series, featuring light and comfortable wearing, long battery life and unique open and inaudible design.

Through this acquisition, ByteDance not only acquired the core technology of Oladance, but also absorbed an experienced team composed of former Bose engineers, laying a good foundation in the field of audio technology.

Oladance technology should be able to help ByteDance improve the audio performance of its VR/AR equipment. The design of open headphones not only provides space for a larger battery, but also creates the possibility of integrating various sensors. Combined with Pico, a head display manufacturer previously acquired by ByteDance, the integration of these technologies has brought more potential for its expansion in audio-visual experience and wearable devices.

In the past year, many AI headset products have been released one after another. At present, it seems that Ola Friend has no special morphological innovation, which is quite different from the earphones before Oladance. It is an "earphone" and has no imaginary camera. It just connects to a large model and calls the model without turning on the mobile phone. Such an "AI earphone" does not seem to have as many black technologies as expected.

However, in the "Tonight’s Technology Talk" in Geek Park two days ago, Gu Jiawei, the founder of Spirit Universe, said that Byte’s launch of Ola Friend this time is intended to explore a personal AI scene similar to "Her", although it is not obviously different from the traditional OWS headphones in appearance design, nor does it infinitely improve the expectations of many personalized capabilities and boundaries, but this is a management method that grasps the expectations of users. In essence, they let you know that this is an ordinary earphone first, and then when its software capabilities are reflected, there will be some unexpected possibilities.

In his view, one of the important purposes of Byte’s launch of this headset is actually to make bean bags have more convenient ways to reach faster and lower the threshold for accessing bean bags.

Bean bag is already the most popular native AI application in China. At the same time, in terms of AI big model and application, bytes have been fully laid out, and a number of text and multi-modal big models have been developed, including bean bag big model family, covering general model, role-playing model, speech synthesis model, sound reproduction model, speech recognition model, text-based graph model, Function Call model and vectorization model.

In addition, Byte has also developed a number of AI native applications based on the bean bag model. In addition to bean bags, there are more than 10 AI products such as the AI application development platform "Button" and the interactive entertainment application "Cat Box".

The end-to-end AI hardware may be the last piece of puzzle that bytes fill the AI layout.

02 glasses or headphones, the first entrance of the big model landing reality?

Since the second half of the year, the commercialization of large model software seems to be less than expected, and large model+hardware seems to be a new way out, especially after the popularity of Meta Ray-Ban smart glasses.

Earlier, Guojin Securities released a research report saying that it is estimated that the shipment of Meta Ray-Ban may reach 500,000 units in Q2 of 2024, with an annual sales volume of 2 million units.

Image source: Ray-Ban official website

Among foreign giants, Apple seems equally interested in joining the battlefield. According to Bloomberg News, the devices being developed by Apple’s Vision Products Group include the affordable version of Apple Vision, the second generation of Apple Vision Pro, and an AI smart glasses similar to Ray Ban Meta.

Domestic companies have also launched products. In April, Xiaomi Mijia Smart Audio Glasses Enjoy Edition was officially released; In May, Huawei launched smart glasses equipped with Pangu model; In August, Honeycomb Technology launched AI audio glasses.

Then why did Byte first introduce headphones, not glasses?

"Byte is definitely making glasses." Looking at Jia Weilai, Byte is actively exploring and iterating whether it is helmet-mounted VR or other lightweight devices or devices that realize perspective effect through optical frame technology.

For Internet giants like Byte, the choice of hardware is not only based on feelings, but also the continuous pursuit of building portals. Exploration and trial and error are the only way.

Although we haven’t seen Byte release hardware products like Ray-Ban Meta yet, it can be predicted that they will inevitably look for opportunities along this path and gradually introduce related devices. Don’t underestimate the capital, motivation and determination of bytes in layout hardware.

Of course, the AI ​ ​ headset is not limited to bytes. In May, Future Smart and Iflytek launched the iFLYTEK AI conference headset Pro 2, which has the functions of recording shorthand, voice recognition, simultaneous interpretation, etc. It also integrates the viaim AI conference assistant, which can intelligently analyze the conference content, automatically generate summaries and to-do items, and support intelligent question-and-answer functions.

Previously, in July, Xiaomi released the new headset Buds 5. Although it is not clearly positioned as AI hardware, this product supports the rapid conversion of voice to text, and can generate meeting summaries with one click, demonstrating its increasingly intelligent characteristics; In March, Numiao Technology, founded by Li Nan, the former vice president of Meizu, announced that it was cooperating with Meizu to develop an AI headset.

However, if we look at it from a longer period of time, whether it is AI+ glasses or headphones, there is still a long way to go before the big model can become a personal assistant with hardware. This involves not only the technology itself, but also the opening of the business ecology. In the emerging technology entrance dispute, the first to enter the game is often the mobile phone manufacturer, followed by super applications like WeChat. In other words, once the AI assistant technology develops to a highly mature PMF stage, mobile phone manufacturers and these super application giants will rapidly flood in.

Bytes launched Ola Friend at this time, just taking the lead and seeking to take the lead.

* Headshot Source: Ola Friend

This article is the original article of Geek Park. Please contact Geek Jun WeChat geekparkGO for reprinting.