It is reported that both parties will focus on 'people' to explore the relationship between 'people-machine-environment' and let the machines interact with humans in a more natural way and serve humanity.
The two sides will conduct research in areas such as emotional cognition, physical interaction, and multi-channel perception, so that the machine can have five senses, such as hearing, sight, and touch, and understand human emotions to promote human-computer interaction.
Yang Bin, Vice President of Tsinghua University, and Zhang Jianfeng, Vice President of Alibaba Group and Chief Technology Officer unveiled the joint laboratory
In the past, people interacted with the machine through the mouse and keyboard. It was a kind of “natural” interaction that needed to be learned, and the goal of human-computer natural interaction was to let people interact with the machine through instinct.
The Tsinghua University-Alibaba Joint Laboratory will conduct more research on human-computer interaction from the 'human' dimension. In human-to-human communication, speech, tone, expression, and movement are different, and the intention to express is different.
Professor Xu Yingqing of Tsinghua University, the director of the joint lab, said: The laboratory will allow the machine to perceive and understand human emotions by constructing emotional perception and computational models. On the other hand, human-to-human communication integrates speech, hearing, and smell, Tactile and other modalities, multi-channel sensing technology will build a 'five sensation' for the machine, allowing people to communicate with the machine more naturally.
According to the “New Generation Artificial Intelligence Development Plan” issued by the State Council, in the new generation artificial intelligence key common technology system, 'human-computer interaction capability' is one of the focuses of R&D and deployment. With the artificial intelligence coming out of the laboratory, it goes deep into new retail, Family intelligent networking, automatic driving and other scenes, 'human-computer interaction' has become the key to the landing of artificial intelligence scenes.
Fu Limin, head of laboratory of the Alibaba group’s human-computer interaction laboratory, said: “Natural Interaction Experience Lab will focus on solving the 'human interaction' problem, the field is the 'environment', in new retail, family, vehicle and many other scenes. Both involve the interaction between 'man-machine-environment'.
In these future scenarios, the machine will no longer just respond to orders in a dry manner. Instead, it will identify people’s emotions, context, and emotions. When you return home, Tmall Elves will use your emotional state. Play different music, or adjust the voice tone; smart devices adjust the room temperature according to your physical condition, ventilation, lighting.
Ma Yun, Chairman of Alibaba's Board of Directors, said at the Wuzhen Internet Conference last year: 'In the past 30 years, we have turned people into machines. In the next 30 years, we will turn machines into people, but in the end we should make machines more like machines. More like people. 'The natural interaction of man-machine is a step that the machine actively adapts to the people and will better build the relationship between man and the world.
Alibaba Group Vice President, Chief Technology Officer Zhang Jianfeng communicates with Tsinghua University
Yang Bin, vice president of Tsinghua University, said that Alibaba understands the needs of users most, understands the needs of the industry, the next generation of human-computer interaction and user experience, the emotional computing based on the Internet of Things, multi-sensory perception and The interactive technology has a solid foundation, and both parties will take a new path in the cooperation of school and enterprise in the new era.
Alibaba Chief Technology Officer Zhang Jianfeng stated that we hope to implement innovative research methods to allow closer cooperation between basic research and demand applications: on the one hand, to provide better directional scene value for basic research, and on the other hand, hope that scientific research The results are quickly iterated in our rich context to give full play to the core values of universities and companies.
In October last year, Alibaba Group announced the establishment of the Alibaba Dharma Institute, which will invest 100 billion yuan in basic science and disruptive technology innovation research in the next three years. The first research fields announced by Alibaba Dharma include: Quantum Computing, Machine Learning, Basic algorithms, visual computing, natural language processing, human-computer interaction, chip technology, embedded systems, etc. Among them, human-machine natural interaction is one of the important research directions.