Midea Group: The goal is to realize the intelligentization of home appliances in three to five years

Xu Cheng, director of the Central Research Institute of Midea Group, has a total of 78 artificial intelligence engineers in the Midea Group. These engineers are located in the Future Skills Research Center in Silicon Valley, Midea Group Shenzhen Artificial Intelligence Research Institute and the group headquarters in Shunde, Guangdong.

On August 29, at the “AI Technology Home Appliances” sub-forum held during the 2019 International Artificial Intelligence Conference, Xu Chengmao, president of the Central Research Institute of Midea Group, leaked the above information.

“We have 200 people in the IOT (Intelligent internet of Things) team in the whole group, as well as the teams in various business divisions. Together, there are 400 to 500 people in the whole group. The annual investment exceeds one billion yuan, and the annual rate of 20% The speed of growth is increasing. Our goal is that in the next three to five years, we can truly automate and intelligentize our home appliances, just like a human brain, which can perceive and recognize the surrounding environment more accurately, It can help us determine the ability to understand the plan, and can make our products more humanized and personalized, and can be precisely customized for various scenarios.” Xu Chengmao said.

Xu Chengmao revealed that Midea Group’s products have widely used AI (artificial intelligence) technology from planning to development, from production to final service. “For example, in the planning of today’s products, many use artificial intelligence algorithms and big data to accurately understand user needs and create products that best meet user needs. In terms of product services, it is the center that condenses all AI skills, such as interactive intelligence, Service intelligence and ecological intelligence all express the core skills of AI. In terms of customization, it is more to express artificial intelligence. The basic core of artificial intelligence is to make our lives simpler, faster, more humanized and personalized. To create a humanized and personalized experience, the technical support of artificial intelligence is needed here.”

In the process of transformation, Midea Group regards high-end and intelligent products as the most outstanding direction. Earlier this year, Midea Group officially launched its high-end brand – COLMO, which focuses on technology and intelligence.

Xu Chengmao said that COLMO’s artificial intelligence technology platform includes the lowest level of AI infrastructure, similar to the human neural network; on this basis, the five senses, vision, hearing and other senses are constructed.

“We can use artificial intelligence technology to accurately identify the type and color of clothes, which is very difficult, because it is very difficult to identify these in a very challenging environment like a washing machine. Today, our high-end brands can do At this point, for example, in terms of water, we can save 30% of water and one-third of electricity, including the saving at this time. Our voice technology has also been recognized by the industry, and our voice recognition rate has reached 95%. In one scenario, only the wake-up rate reaches 92%.” Xu Chengmao said that COLMO’s air conditioner allows users to reduce the number of times they adjust the temperature of the air conditioner at night, and can more accurately understand the needs of users.

Wang Lei, vice chairman of the my country Household Electrical Appliances Association, said that from January to June 2019, the main business income of home appliances was 850 billion yuan, an increase of 10.57%, and the profit reached 95.6 billion yuan. In the case of negative increase, the double-digit increase in main business income, and the increase in profit is greater than the increase in main business income. The backside of this figure is the continuous increase in the proportion of high-end home appliances, especially the professional leading enterprises are satisfied with the contribution of consumption upgrade to the high-end proportion. . “In the product upgrade, the growth of intelligent home appliances is particularly outstanding. According to incomplete statistics, only the sales of intelligent air conditioners in some cities accounted for one-third of the first six months of this year. Now almost all home appliance categories have joined the In the upgrading of intelligent products, some products have now gone from the initial WIFI to APP to algorithms, big data application, cloud channels, multi-category, interconnection, intelligent linkage, set-up, and scene-based, and the intelligent process of home appliances is accelerating. .”

A few days ago, the semi-annual report released by Midea Group showed that the operating income during the period was 153.77 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 7.82%; the net profit attributable to shareholders of the listed company was 15.19 billion yuan, a year-on-year increase of 17.39%.