Rewrite the Technological Landscape

"Mr. Meng." After the meeting, Zhuo Liangcai and Cao Shuang came to find Meng Qian.

"What's the matter?" Meng Qian noticed that the expressions of the two were a little strange, and motioned for them to sit down.

"We." Zhuo Liang glanced at Cao Shuang, "We want to start a business."

Meng Qian took a sip of tea calmly, "What entrepreneurial project?"

"Future Search."

"Future search?" Meng Qian was a little curious, "A next-generation search engine from Yidian Search?"

"No." Zhuo Liangcai, "It's a creation. I don't dare to say whether it is a creation, but it should be a subversion."

"Let's listen to the specifics."

"As you said just now, the key to using first-principle subversion is to see the essence of affairs, so what is the essence of search.

In our view, the essence of search is to ask questions.

And when people will ask questions, obviously, it is when we encounter problems.

Then there is a problem here, that is, timeliness. The current search engines are all designed based on past computers. Said to be a product that cannot be moved.

So when we encounter problems, can the computer appear by our side in time? If we think about it carefully, we will find that in most cases, the computer will not be around us. For example, if I encounter problems while going out, I have no way to search.

It was not until the emergence of smart phones that the search engine on the mobile phone side solved this problem, but mobile phones, as mobile devices, still use search engines designed based on non-movable computer logic, which makes us start to think about this problem, here Is there a problem? "

Meng Qian unconsciously put down his teacup, and Zhuo Liangcai's statement attracted him, "Let me give you the simplest example, you saw someone holding a Hongmeng 3 in his hand while taking the bus, and Hongmeng 3's The shape attracts you and makes you want to get to know it.

There are two situations at this time. The first is that you know it is Hongmeng 3, you can take out your mobile phone and open a little search to search for Hongmeng 3, and the relevant information will come out.

Another situation is that you don't know what kind of mobile phone it is, but you want to know what it is, what should you do? You can only go up and ask, but what if you are too embarrassed to ask?

At this time, the existing search engines seem to be a little weak to solve the problem you are encountering at the moment.

So we began to think about whether there are other ways to solve this problem, until we thought of a possibility, if we can let the mobile phone recognize our curious target, and the mobile phone will feed back the result to us, that is, through Is it possible to use the mobile phone's own identification to complete the search purpose?

If possible, can we name it, visual search.

Users only need to turn on the camera and aim at the target to obtain relevant information. "

"This can only be regarded as visual recognition." Meng Qian frowned slightly, a little disappointed, "As long as the database is built and the algorithm is designed, any mobile phone can have this function in a few years."

"If it only shows the basic information of the object being photographed, it is really just a visual recognition, and our company will soon overcome this technology.

But if coupled with the understanding of user behavior, it is not just recognition, but can further evolve into a search function.

For example, when we go on a trip, as a mobile phone, it has your location and a series of data, such as time, recent itinerary, and travel mode, because with the help of a mobile phone, the information that the algorithm can obtain is beyond the picture or video itself. Yes, then the algorithm can use these data to guess what the user most wants to search for now and sort the search results, and a series of feedback results like a one-point search will appear instead of just a basic object information.

Users can find what they want in this series of feedback results. Of course, visual search can combine voice and text input. When the algorithm makes a wrong judgment, users can refine the content they want to search through voice and text.

This vision-based search application will have many expected scenarios, such as learning, social networking, and outdoor commercialization. "

"To achieve visual recognition and user understanding at the same time, it is not easy to develop this algorithm." Meng Qian directly pointed out the difficulty. After all, this is a technology that has not been realized in 2019. "There are big problems in the most basic visual recognition alone. .

Your visual recognition is not the same as the visual recognition we are conquering. The current development of computer vision technology is based on point clouds, that is, by scanning objects in 3D, building point clouds, and then using point clouds to train machine algorithms. Let the machine recognize this object, you should be very clear.

However, this counting principle is more suitable for indoors, and it is more effective in recognizing objects and faces, but the recognition ability becomes very poor outdoors. Most commonly, as the light changes, the color and intensity of building reflections will change. Shadows will change. In addition, pedestrians and parked vehicles around buildings will also affect the machine's recognition. How are you going to solve this problem? "

"We adopted another algorithmic logic." Zhuo Liangcai put the prepared tablet in front of Meng Qian, "Our identification is based on geometry and labeling.

First of all, we must build a huge database, and as users upload more and more information, our database will also become larger and larger.

Secondly, we will perform characteristic geometric processing on outdoor objects, such as the shape of mountains and towers, these very characteristic shapes, so as to reduce the dependence on information with large changes such as light.

Then we will label the information in the database. At this time, just like the positioning I mentioned just now, on the premise of knowing where the user took the picture, we can quickly find out the location through the label, and then combine the geometric information. OK to confirm the target. "

"When you first started thinking about this technology, what was the source of inspiration?" Meng Qian asked earnestly, "Shouldn't you just be thinking about the essence of search? Your research direction has never been search."

Zhuo Liangcai and Cao Shuang smiled and said, "One day we saw a strange-looking stone at the Xixi Wetland, and then we just stared at that stone for a long time, but our brains were empty.

Curiosity is actually human nature. Sometimes, for example, we are very curious when we see something we have never seen before, but let us use words to express what we want to search for and what we want to know. In fact, we ourselves are not very clear.

At this time, visual search will become very valuable. When you are curious, you only need to take out your mobile phone to take a picture, and a lot of information will appear, which may contain the content you want to know.

This is indeed one of our original intentions for visual search. We found that most people were full of curiosity about the world when they were young. Flowers on the roadside and ants on the ground can make us want to explore, but as we As I grew up, this curiosity became weaker and weaker.

Maybe visual search can reignite the curiosity of more adults, and not necessarily. "

"To be honest, although you have a certain direction, the difficulty of technology may be higher than you expected in my opinion. But your ideas really moved me. Are you sure you are ready? Entrepreneurship is not not easy."

"We have not underestimated the difficulty of this technology, and we are ready to continue to die, three years, five years or even ten years, we think this is a promising technology, it is meaningful and has commercial value .”

"Business value? This should have been the question Mr. Shao should have asked. Now that you mentioned it, what is your business model? How do you make a profit? I didn't see it at all." Meng Qian asked along the way.

"If visual search can be realized in the end, the profit from search and Google will be our future profit model."

"It takes too long to wait, before that?"

"In this process, the technology of outdoor visual recognition alone is enough for us to obtain opportunities for business cooperation. Now many companies want to obtain users' outdoor information for big data analysis, so our technology can be used. gone."

"So how long do you estimate that you need to invest in the early stage, and when will you see the return?"

"Three years, one hundred million."

It can be seen that Zhuo Liangcai and Cao Shuang are taking this matter very seriously, and Meng Qian is really looking forward to this technology, "Okay, bring your business plan to Mr. Shao.

Leave it to him to make business judgments. As for technical issues, I am willing to trust you. "

Zhuo Liangcai and Cao Shuang were overjoyed and brought their business plan to prepare for their new journey.

Meng Qian looked forward to the backs of the two leaving silently, "I hope more people can surprise me."