Logitech and Baidu Brain Partner on Speech Input Wireless Mouse

Logitech announced a long-term partnership with Baidu Brain, beginning with the launch of its new Logitech Voice M380 Wireless Mouse with Speech Input in China. Designed especially for people who create large amounts of content, the mouse lets users dictate text, creating content two or three times faster than typing in Chinese. The Logitech Voice M380 Wireless Mouse is powered exclusively by intelligent Baidu Speech technology from Baidu Brain.

According to a new report from Strategy Analytics, worldwide sales of smart displays, a sub segment of the wider smart speaker market, will grow 111% in 2019 to reach 16.9 million units. The report forecasts that more than 12 million homes will own a smart display by the end of this year, rising to nearly 100 million homes by 2023. The report also predicts that 46% of unit sales of smart displays in 2019 will have built-in support for Google Assistant while a further 40% will support Amazon’s Alexa platform. Chinese platforms including Baidu’s DuerOS will account for the majority of the remaining 14% of the market.

Synaptics announced its AudioSmart far-field voice DSPs have been selected by Baidu, the leading Chinese language Internet search provider, for its new DuerOS Mobile Accessory (DMA) platform recently announced at the Baidu Create 2018 AI Developer Conference. Market applications enabled by combining Synaptics' low-power far-field voice DSP, with a Bluetooth connectivity IC and DuerOS, Baidu’s conversational AI system, includes a wide-variety of on-the-go products including Bluetooth speakers, headphones, wearables and automotive accessories.

Knowles Corporation announced that it has developed with Baidu and Bestechnic (BES) a new hands-free reference design for headphones, headsets and true wireless earbuds that works with smart devices powered by DuerOS, Baidu’s conversational AI system. The Knowles IA610 SmartMic supports the industry’s lowest-power, always-on voice wake capability to enable Baidu voice service on-the-go for ear worn consumer products.

Following earlier demonstrations at CES 2018, Qualcomm introduced a series of new platforms, SoC and development kits targeting new advanced audio applications and smart speakers, including the support of key wireless technologies, voice and cloud ecosystems. Solutions include its Smart Audio Platform optimized for smart speakers, a 6-microphone far field voice platform qualified for Amazon AVS, Dolby Audio implementations for wireless speakers and much more.

Baidu, a company known as China's search engine is investing heavily in its own voice engine, artificial intelligence (AI), and even hardware technologies, following Google's footsteps. Earlier this year, Baidu acquired Raven, a Beijing-based smart home startup, and the first results of that investment have now been revealed with two voice-activated speakers that run on the company's own AI platform. The design was the result of a cooperation with a Swedish start-up, Teenage Engineering.

Conexant announced a collaboration with Chinese company Baidu to release development kits and reference designs for far-field voice-enabled artificial intelligent (AI) devices running on Baidu’s DuerOS platform. The development kits and reference designs will be powered by Conexant's CX20924 4-microphone and CX20921 2-microphone voice input processing solutions. DuerOS is a conversation-based AI system that already supports access to a voice-activated digital assistant for mobile phones, TVs, speakers, and other devices.