Go out and ask. On November 22, we officially released our own intelligent vehicle robot - ask the magic mirror Ticmirror and ADAS driving assistance system - ask the magic eye Ticeye. The former is essentially a stack of "voice robot, tachograph, navigation, display" and other components in the frame of the rear-view mirror.
Maybe some of you are not interested in the car market, but in addition to new products, there are many interesting details of product orientation and positioning in the press conference, which can be used as an introduction to industry science and novelty products.
PS： It is inevitable that there will be some omissions from Yijiekao. Please give us more advice.
Cause and background of the product
Go out and ask about the company's resume, including the launch of Ticwear, the first Chinese smart watch operating system based on Android Wear, in December 2014, the launch of smart watch ticwatch in June 2015, the acquisition of Google's round C financing in October of the same year (the total financing amount reached 75 million dollars), the launch of ticwatch 2 in June 2016, and the start of the public beta of Ticmirror. this In the press conference, it was officially announced that 180000 tickwatches had been sold, with a sales volume of 240 million dollars. The Chinese company record of 2.08 million dollars had been completed in the North American crowdfunding platform Kickstar, and the team now has about 300 people.
Since its establishment in October 2012, Go out and ask has always been regarded as an artificial intelligence (AI) company. The official said that in order to make the control software and hardware experience "original AI consumer products", it cut into the hardware field according to the use scenario. After intelligent wear, it chose the intelligent scene of the car, but the car building and front loading market is "too heavy", so start-ups are unlikely to intervene, so it chose the after loading market.
HUD effect picture
To carry complicated operations, it is basically the place where the screen can be placed on the car search. In the aftermarket, the main products are tachographs, HUDs and cars. HUD refers to the head up display. This is the transparent display used to display flight information on the fighter, but its display accuracy is low and it cannot display complex content, so it can only display simple navigation and driving information.
Tesla's Onboard System
Car machine refers to the on-board system, whose main functions are navigation and audio and video entertainment. Apple CarPlay and Android Auto can also be included in it. However, many users still habitually regard it as "navigation". When they go out and ask, they say that the reason why they didn't choose it is that it is difficult to install and expensive.
Finally, I went out and asked about the rearview mirror, which was actually very smart. In addition to the relatively small degree of modification, the position of the rear-view mirror is somewhat similar to that of the HUD. The advantage is that it does not need the driver's perspective to leave the road, it can also act as a tachograph, and it can also act as or even replace the vehicle. This is also an important reason for many domestic manufacturers to enter the smart rear-view mirror market. Of course, this position is not without its disadvantages. The positioning of the rear-view mirror determines that its screen cannot be too large, cannot interfere with driving, has limited anti dazzle effect, and has a higher operating area (more tired arms, more interference with driving).
The important reason for a startup to enter this market in a large span is that smart rear-view mirrors have a relatively mature program, which has greatly lowered the threshold of the industry. From the copycat function machine MP3、MP4、 With the advent of Android tablet era, some solution providers/manufacturers have entered the field of intelligent rear-view mirrors. Its important time node is in June this year, when intelligent hardware solution providers have launched a complete set of platform solutions based on MT8665 of MediaTek. At that time, the Ticmirror Magic Mirror, which just started public testing, should also be the first batch of smart rear-view mirrors.
The official announced that 200 owners and users of 150 different models in 60 cities of 27 provinces, municipalities and autonomous regions across the country were selected from more than 10000 applications to carry out the inside test. Five months later, the cumulative road test distance was 120000 kilometers, and 20 versions of iterations were carried out.
Ticmirror
Ticmirror asked about the internal structure of the magic mirror, The interior is very similar to a mobile phone/tablet
Public beta in June this year
New version of dark space grey Ticmirror
Ticmirror in Champagne Gold
Ticmirror asks whether the wires of the magic mirror are on the back bracket. In addition to the buttons and infrared sensors (the square hole in the lower left corner) on the front, they are not different from the regular rearview mirror. Compared with the public beta version in June this year, the main changes in appearance are the addition of champagne gold, the cancellation of button icons, and the addition of decorative outer rings outside the screen.
After the rest screen is a complete mirror, the information and time of the song/crosstalk being played will be displayed in the lower right corner. From left to right are the infrared sensor, voice wake-up button, home page, mute button and status indicator for gesture recognition.
On the top of the machine body is the interface cover. From left to right, there are SIM card, memory card and mirco USB interface, and then on the right is the connection line with the magic eye Ticeye.
The fuselage is slightly thicker than the ordinary rear-view mirror. At the bottom of the fuselage are the cooling grille, microphone and power button.
Many openings on the back of the fuselage are speakers and dual microphone arrays placed up and down (noise reduction and echo cancellation required for voice operation must start here). The right side is a hemispherical adjustable position camera, the highest Support 1080P 30fps video, F2.0 large aperture and 150 ° ultra wide-angle lens. The power cord is hidden in the bracket. The bracket will change according to different models. Because the body is heavier than the conventional rear-view mirror, it needs stronger fixation to prevent its angle change. The bracket of the testing machine is tightened very tightly, and it needs a lot of force to change its angle.
Ticmirror magic mirror can use acceleration sensor to detect vibration and impact, and automatically lock the video during the vibration/impact, so that the driving record will not be cyclically covered. The automatic locking can also be triggered when the machine body is actually knocked hard, and there will be a prompt tone. If this function is not sensitive, it is meaningless (the user has to confirm whether there is a latch). If it is too sensitive, the capacity will be wasted. However, the difference between the soft and hard shock absorbers of different vehicles is obvious. In fact, it may require more troublesome sensitivity tests to adapt to different vehicle conditions.
hardware configuration
MT8665 is a chip specially made by MediaTek for the vehicle field. It has a 28nm process and is composed of a 64 bit four core 1.5GHz A53 architecture CPU+Mali-T720 GPU. It integrates the functions of All Netcom 4G, Beidou GPS dual-mode positioning, WiFi and FM transmission. This solution focuses on power consumption and stability, and its performance is not high. The computing performance of Qualcomm Snapdragon 412 (4-core [email protected] ）It is close to the Snapdragon 600 on Xiaomi 2s four years ago and many TV boxes. In addition, due to different usage scenarios, manufacturers generally customize and significantly simplify common apps, and the performance gap in actual use is not obvious.
Ticmirror asked that the mirror was equipped with MT8665+ 2G memory+16/32G storage, the system has been highly simplified, and the system sliding and task switching are relatively smooth, but the application opening speed of the engineering machine is average, and the speed of machine voice wake-up and voice interface pop-up is also slow. I hope that the mass production machine can be improved.
The machine uses a 7.84-inch 1080 * 400 resolution IPS full fit screen with a screen ratio of 27:10, which is even more flat than the 21:9 wide screen. The empty space on both sides of the screen is called "flickering" breathing light, which is used to remind the working state of the machine and safety warning.
It may be to pass through the lens surface layer. The basic backlight intensity of the screen is on the high side, and even the black under the lowest brightness is dark. Fortunately, this one screen Saturation and The PPI is high, the color is bright, and the use distance in the car is far from the flat. It is difficult to see the graininess in the wheel eye.
Ask the Devil Eye Ticeye
In addition to Ticmirror's magic mirror for asking questions, we also launched the ADAS intelligent driving assistance system called "Ask the Magic Eye Ticeye". Some intelligent rear-view mirrors also provide the ADAS function, but the availability is affected because the wide-angle lens of the DASH CAM is used. The magic eye Ticeye has been made into an independent device, with its own processor, speakers, and camera. Even if Ticmirror asks the magic mirror for a problem or plays a song, it will not be disturbed.
Ask the magic eye, Ticeye, whose field of vision is 33 degrees vertically and 44 degrees horizontally The actual resolution is 720 * 480. The machine can directly read and measure OBD data, monitor vehicle speed, engine speed, water temperature and other information.
The machine supports WDR wide dynamic range imaging and mainly provides three functions: "FCW front vehicle collision warning, LDW lane departure warning and FVSA front vehicle start warning". However, its effect could not be tested on site, so we had to report to everyone after we had the chance to get the real machine.
The front of the body is the speaker, and the bottom is the volume increase/decrease and switch button. The side of the fuselage is covered with a cooling grille. On the left side is a dial to adjust the angle of the camera, which is used to adapt to different vehicle windscreens. On the right side is a mini USB interface.
Ask Magic Eye Ticeye to fix it on the windshield with 3M glue on the back. The installation position is on the right side of the rearview mirror bracket. The adjustment angle of the camera itself is about 60 degrees, and the highest angle can be almost perpendicular to the bracket. It may also be used in Tough guy jeep, bus, truck, etc Facade glass on the vehicle.
Ticauto UI system
Open beta half a year ago ticauto UI
Compared with hardware, the system and voice assistant are the biggest selling points of Ticmirror's magic mirror. The public beta half a year ago is still a common card based interface, and even the system settings still keep the appearance of native Android.
After 20 iterations, the new version of the system is no different from the explosive modification of Android. There are many UI modifications for driving scenes and ultra wide screens. The overall logic is a horizontally placed mobile phone, which is divided into the leftmost virtual key, the middle resident navigation card and the rightmost application card.
But maybe it is to prevent accidental touch? The home key is still placed at the bottom of the fuselage and made into a solid key. The notice bar that would have appeared on the top is placed on the right side away from the driver's seat. After sliding left and pulling out, there is a shortcut setting menu. It has quick control of brightness and volume, and supports long press and jump. It is more like a domestic Android ROM than before.
The system settings do not look like regular Android, while the bottom layer is Android 5.1.
Ticmirror asked the Magic Mirror to support the flow cards of the three major operators. It can not make calls, but can be used to send hot spots, or even send FM radio, so that the car radio can listen to it directly. A circle can allow old models that do not support Bluetooth to "directly" play digital music.
Handheld settings
The system provides three operation modes: touch, voice and gesture. Wave in different directions towards the sensor at the lower left corner to complete song cutting, photo taking and other operations. The recognition and speed of the engineering machine for gesture operation are OK, but the speed of the system to execute commands is average, and the current availability is average, even less convenient than using the voice command of "next song", let alone the control button of the steering wheel.
The built-in tachograph has fast response and short delay. The touch screen settings are much more comfortable than the buttons of traditional tachographs.
The machine is equipped with a customized version of the car mirror of Goddard Maps, which supports offline maps and voice packages. The navigation app or the fixed card on the left can directly access the navigation screen. The screen is not large. It's OK to see the navigation instructions, but it's not convenient to check the location.
The system's own entertainment applications now include three "Netease Cloud Music, Himalaya and Koala FM". The UI interface is slightly different from that on mobile phones/PCs. It looks very fresh.
Global voice operation and WeChat linkage
Ticmirror Query Mirror All operations of the whole system can be completed by voice. The system takes its own way out to ask the bank's AI, which can perform voice search just like ticwatch. The biggest difference between voice experience and ticwatch is that it can even select and confirm through voice. The search results will be listed in the form of three on a screen, and the "X" voice command can be selected.
The biggest hardware threshold of this set of voice system is full time voice waiting and interior noise filtering. The former provides a microphone to provide two modes of driver and whole car sound collection, respectively to respond to the need to release control to other passengers, and wakes up through the command of "Hello, ask" like a watch.
The threshold of software is the "original problem" of voice search, such as context semantic recognition, vehicle environment result optimization and multi round dialogue. You can use specific words such as "just now, there" to make the machine simply connect with the context. The on-site test effect is close to the performance of the voice assistant on ticwatch 2, and the dialogue cannot be too detached, There is still a certain chance of "missing" the context if the words are too skilful.
In terms of voice control, the biggest leap of Ticmirror's magic mirror is:
Support the completion instruction in the form of triggering statement+operation , you can directly use software such as "Hello, ask and open the map" to get there in one step without waiting for the voice assistant to wake up;
Trigger words are not required in application In the map, phone, and search results, the voice assistant always stays awake, and can trigger the operation directly with simple commands such as "3D mode, X, answer". Of course, this will definitely greatly increase the chance of voice touch error of other passengers
Voice commands can also be recognized in music playing, navigation and voice broadcasting ; No matter Siri or various voice assistants on Android platform, they cannot change songs through voice after playing music, which is an embarrassing point for many voice users. Ticmirror asked the magic mirror to finally maintain voice recognition in music and noise.
In terms of WeChat linkage, it is now mainly on the two small function points of remote operation of the tachograph and sending destination information. After parking, the DASH CAM will automatically take a picture and send it to the user through its service number. You can also remotely control Ticmirror through WeChat to ask the magic mirror for the location and track of taking pictures and sending. Friends can share their location with the machine and directly start navigation, or send the location directly to the machine with their mobile phones, thus avoiding the embarrassment of heavy input operations on the rearview mirror to some extent.
summary
For going out to ask, the car environment is very suitable for the expansion of voice and AI. The starting point of Ticmirror's magic mirror is to upgrade the intelligent experience of the car with the smallest possible modification. Even if the installation service has been contracted, the installation still needs to be completed by professionals. Compared with existing products, there is little difference in functions, and the improvement is mainly in interaction.
Although the gesture operation is cool, the current operation is mainly in enclosure, and its efficiency is not high. Raising your hand to the height of the rear-view mirror for operation will not only cause more interference to driving, but also in most scenarios it is not as good as the previous dashboard or steering wheel buttons (of course, for Ticmirror asking the magic mirror, which is not connected to the whole vehicle system, these two operation modes cannot be used), or even easier to use than voice commands
Compared with existing products, its voice operation has really improved a lot. Despite the serious environment of driving safety first, continuous voice commands have significantly improved the experience "Interrupt in the middle" function, Smart watches and mobile phones may not be able to do so for a period of time. However, in the search results, users still need to focus on the results with their eyes and think about the number of answers. Their interference to driving may not be less than that of traditional keys and touch screens. For voice operation, the fault tolerance rate of the on-board environment will be much lower. The probability of voice recognition errors during driving is much higher than that of finger touch errors, which is also troublesome to correct. Unless the accuracy and prevention of false touch can be very high, it may be like most voice assistants, and will be dusty after several attempts.
Ticmirror asked about the interactive innovation on the magic mirror, which is similar to the Hammer ROM of Hammer Technology. It has a lot of smart ideas, which can really solve the interaction optimization of using pain points, but the innovation points distributed everywhere make it difficult for ordinary consumers to remember and use it at the first time. Of course, this is not a big problem for the target users at the initial stage of the product, because this group of Geekers and deep users like to explore. One or two really useful points, such as global voice operation and WeChat linkage, are enough for us to pay for a taste (squint).
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