• An AI robot is selling souvenir goods in a tourist shop. Besides introducing the information of goods, she can also interact and respond with voice appropriately with customers.

An AI robot is selling souvenir goods in a tourist shop. Besides introducing the information of goods, she can also interact and respond with voice appropriately with customers. (Photo : Getty Images)

The intelligent voice technology is receiving the spotlight in various fields such as healthcare, education, smart homes and intelligent driving. Unisound, a voice recognition and processing technology provider based in Beijing, is one of the players that are pioneering the application of artificial intelligence through voice.

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The Beijing-based technology startup was founded in 2012. Through the years, it has obtained several intellectual property rights of intelligent voice recognition technology. It also has a complete technology architecture of AI that is based on big data, cloud platform, and machine learning.

Seeing the potential of the internet-of-things in the future, Unisound provides Artificial Intelligence enabled chips and user interfaces with intelligent voice functions for institutions and companies.

"I agree with the vision articulated in 'Conversation as a Platform.' Voice is the most natural way to connect. With the development of smart devices, voice interaction will become the future trend," said Huang Wei, chief executive officer of Unisound.

Unisound has worked with several leading appliance manufacturers to help produce millions of smart home devices. This includes Gree, TCL, Haier and Hisense.

The company enables home appliances such as refrigerators and air conditioners to hear consumers' voice commands. Basing on this, the appliance can now make a decision and do necessary adjustments depending on the response of the consumer.

In the healthcare industry, Unisound is the first provider of medical cloud service in China. Nearly 100 hospitals nationwide tested its service last year wherein doctors can use voice input instead of typing words to save a medical record. The company claims that doctors will be able to save nearly 1.5 to 2 hours per day using the service.

Zhu Zhongliang, an academician at the Chinese Academy of Sciences, said: "In recent years, the global intelligent voice market grew rapidly. In future, those related intelligent devices will enter every home," showing his optimism about the future development of intelligent voice.

Sales of the global intelligent voice market will likely reach an estimated 11.24 billion yuan in 2017, up 37 percent year-on-year, according to the data of China's Ministry of Industry and Information Technology.