War in Voice Recognition Market
These days, global ICT companies are boosting their investment in voice recognition technology as a technical field closely related to artificial intelligence (AI) and personal AI assistants such as Alexa, Siri, Google Home and Bixby.
In this context, Naver begins to show a microphone icon in the search window of its mobile version in the third quarter of this year. Its AI speaker Wave is based on voice recognition as well and searching can be performed without typing in a search word.
Kakao is concentrating on voice recognition, too. It has already applied the technology to its music app Melon. In addition, it is currently working with the Hyundai Motor Group in order to apply server-based voice recognition to the Genesis G70, which is scheduled to be unveiled next month. The technique is to provide road information and so on after a destination is input with the voice recognition button in the car pressed.
In the meantime, a number of companies are expecting that not only voice recognition but also cameras will be able to become an input tool replacing touch screens. For example, Naver is working on a service for providing product information based on captured product images. Google is currently providing a similar service for menu translation.