Smart TV: Standing at the forefront of artificial intelligence

Recently, it is the season for color TV manufacturers to release new products, and new products and technologies emerge in an endless stream. After quantum dot TVs and OLED TVs have attracted a lot of attention, the explosion of artificial intelligence TVs this year has also become a highlight of the color TV industry, allowing color TV intelligence to enter a new stage of development. Today, when smart TVs have become standard, how manufacturers can further optimize user experience while upgrading picture quality has become the main theme of the development of the color TV industry in 2017.

The technical route faces a fork in the road

If you ask what is the most eye-catching thing in the color TV market, it must be the technology upgrade. In the color TV market, new display technologies represented by OLED are accelerating the marketization process and grabbing market share. Facing the competition from OLED, LCD technology continues to solve the shortcomings of curved surface, ultra-thinness, color gamut, etc., and vigorously promotes quantum dot TV. Today, the emergence of different technical schools has brought the color TV industry to a fork in the road again, with LCD going left and OLED going right.

At this year's spring new product launch conference, Sony and Changhong both targeted the OLED market and said they would focus on OLED this year. Changhong's TV products equipped with OLED display screens have improved the color of TVs by 50%, the brightness by 40 times, and the contrast by 50 times, which has continuously improved the indicators of OLED TVs; Sony's OLED TV uses the "Acoustic Surface" screen sound field technology, which allows the panel to vibrate and emit sound waves. It is the world's first large-screen TV that can directly emit sound using the screen. The addition of Sony and Changhong has injected new vitality into the OLED camp.

In order to extend the life of LCD TVs, in addition to improving the appearance, LCD TVs have also solved the shortcoming of low color gamut of displays and applied quantum dot technology to the field of color TVs. This year, in addition to Samsung and TCL, Hisense also stated that it will officially join the quantum dot camp, continuously reduce the cost of quantum dot TVs, and optimize product structure.

It is worth noting that the quantum dot TVs sold on the market today still use quantum dot materials added to the backlight or color film of the LCD panel, and are not truly self-luminous. However, manufacturers are also working on electroluminescent quantum dot technology (QLED), which is a quantum dot TV with true self-luminous properties. Although it is still in the research stage, it is the direction that the color TV industry has been working towards. Once the electroluminescent quantum dot technology is successfully developed, it will truly challenge OLED technology.

Artificial intelligence is still in its infancy

This year, in addition to quantum dot TVs and OLED TVs, the concentrated outbreak of artificial intelligence TVs has also become a highlight of the color TV industry. Manufacturers combine artificial intelligence with color TV products in order to seize the technological "trend" of artificial intelligence and improve user experience.

At the 2017 spring new product launch conference of color TV manufacturers, TCL, Changhong, Xiaomi, Weijing and other manufacturers all focused on artificial intelligence TV. Among them, Changhong launched OLED TV products based on the CHiQ TV artificial intelligence voice interaction system, combining artificial intelligence TV with OLED technology to create high-end products. TCL also unveiled the artificial intelligence TV for the first time at the new product launch conference, and joined forces with all parties to connect data in artificial intelligence and cloud services to achieve resource sharing. From hardware products to content services, big data integration and artificial intelligence, we will create a smart living room in multiple dimensions, seize the most valuable home entrance and the most important field in the era of the Internet of Everything.

In fact, when smart TVs first emerged, color TV manufacturers added voice recognition functions to smart TVs, but that cannot be called artificial intelligence. Today, although the prospects for artificial intelligence TVs are promising, the current stage of development of artificial intelligence TVs and how they will evolve in the future are still issues that the industry needs to think about calmly.

With the development of artificial intelligence technology, color TV manufacturers have integrated algorithms and big data technology into their TV products, but in the eyes of some real technology companies and technical experts, this is still in the early stages of artificial intelligence application. Color TV manufacturers still face great challenges in transforming artificial intelligence technology into usable products and seizing the home entrance.

Expert opinion

Hu Chunming, Deputy Secretary General of the Liquid Crystal Branch of China Optics and Optoelectronics Industry Association:

QLED commercialization is getting closer

Currently, all applications on the market are quantum dot photoluminescence technology, which is actually adding quantum dot materials to the backlight or color film of the liquid crystal panel to enrich the color of the display, and the display unit is still a liquid crystal device. Quantum dot light-emitting diode technology (QLED) can be called "quantum dot display technology" in the true sense, but it is still in the experimental research stage.

Quantum dot materials have greatly improved the color gamut of LCD display devices, giving LCD TVs a relative competitive advantage in the competition with OLED TVs. However, quantum dot technology, whether it is photoluminescence or electroluminescence, needs to be further improved and studied. Breakthroughs are needed in many aspects, such as how to increase its production capacity, reduce costs, make it cadmium-free, and extend its life. At present, domestic TV manufacturers in the downstream of the display industry chain, such as TCL, Changhong, and Konka, are actively deploying quantum dot technology. I believe that with the efforts of researchers from various countries, the commercialization of QLED will be getting closer and closer to us.

Su Zihuan, General Manager of Changhong Multimedia Industry Company:

I don’t agree with the price war of OLED TVs.

At this stage, it is very difficult for televisions to differentiate themselves through hardware. Based on the mature artificial intelligence voice interaction system of CHiQ TV, Changhong can conveniently interact with other home appliances and related equipment, forming an innovative Changhong artificial intelligence home solution.

Changhong will continue to adjust its product structure in the future, increase the layout of mid-to-high-end products, and focus on 65-inch to 75-inch products, which is in line with the trend of consumption upgrading. In addition to artificial intelligence, picture quality is also very important for TVs. This year, Changhong will focus on promoting OLED TV products. I do not agree with OLED TVs engaging in price wars. Now the supply of OLED TV screens is very tight. What we need to do is to provide consumers with a good experience. This year, Changhong will launch a series of OLED TV promotion plans to provide consumers with OLED experience venues. This is what OLED development should do now.

Zhang Shaoyong, General Manager of TCL Multimedia Product Center:

The development of artificial intelligence TV faces three stages

Artificial intelligence is quite popular now. Artificial intelligence can be simply divided into three stages: the first stage is to make it simple; the second stage is to make it convenient; the third stage is to make it smart. A few years ago, we solved the problem of simple TV operation, such as the continuous optimization of the search function, and the introduction of voice 1.0, 2.0, and now 5.0. This year, our TV has solved the problem of convenient operation. Through image recognition, voice recognition, graphic recognition and other technologies, users can use TV more conveniently. What color TV manufacturers need to do in the next stage is to make TV smarter, which is also the key development direction of artificial intelligence technology in the future.

As a winner of Toutiao's Qingyun Plan and Baijiahao's Bai+ Plan, the 2019 Baidu Digital Author of the Year, the Baijiahao's Most Popular Author in the Technology Field, the 2019 Sogou Technology and Culture Author, and the 2021 Baijiahao Quarterly Influential Creator, he has won many awards, including the 2013 Sohu Best Industry Media Person, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Beijing Third Place, the 2015 Guangmang Experience Award, the 2015 China New Media Entrepreneurship Competition Finals Third Place, and the 2018 Baidu Dynamic Annual Powerful Celebrity.