One thing that I learnt at the Huawei Connect 2017 event is that Huawei spends huge amount of money in research and development activities.
Huawei Wireless X Labs is a new research initiative and platform that will work to bring together the operators, vertical industry partners and industry leaders to jointly drive innovation in business and technology, explore future use cases for mobile applications, and to promote an open industry ecosystem.
The mission of Huawei Wireless X Labs is to discover, develop, and nurture new applications that will make great contributions to the wireless communication industry through in-depth researches on wireless network services and users to construct an open and robust ecosystem.
At the Mobile World Congress 2017, Huawei showcased some of X Labs products and grabbed eyeballs. The robotic drummer was one of my personal favorite. You can watch it in the below video.
And in Huawei Connect 2017 event, I came to know more about the X Labs Wireless in a special session with Mr. Alex Wang, President of Huawei Wireless X Labs. I also had the opportunity to see the demo of some recent X Labs projects.
Huawei Wireless X Labs is basically divided in below three domains :
mLab / People : Consumer-centric joint innovation on applications and technologies
hLab / Household : Wireless-home-broadband-centric innovation
vLab / Verticals : Vertical-industry-oriented research
There are 3.9 billion mobile digital life users in 2017. So, obviously people’s communication requirements are increasing in each medium every day. mLab analyzes these requirements for various communication mediums like voice, image, video, HD video, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), etc. to provide a better end-to-end solution for best user experiences
For example, the U-vMOS (User, Unified, Ubiquitous - video Mean Opinion Score) is a new standard for evaluating video experience and it helps in constructing a user experience-based MBB (Mobile Broadband) network.
Vertical industries are moving towards a digital transformation and 90 billion things will be connected by 2025. So vLab explores and studies various industry applications like low-latitude seamless coverage of mobile networks, ultra-long-distance drone flights, industrial robots coordination using mobile networks, Internet of Vehicle (IoV) applications supported by mobile networks etc. for vertical industries along with research on mobile networks for the digital transformation of the energy, medical care, logistics, and government fields.
According to predictions, there will be 0.8 billion home wireless broadband families in the world by 2020. hLab studies and researches how to use operators' network to its maximum potential to connect unconnected households, bridge the digital divide; bring 4K resolution video content and VR available to all; and to enable smart homes, home security, household robots, family health, and home automation systems.
There are total four branches of the X Labs Innovation Center (XIC) in Germany, North America, Japan, and China each working focused on something particular. For example China XIC concentrates on drones and service robots, while Germany unit works primarily on autonomous cars, smart factory and e-health.
The XIC will operate on a membership basis and hold annual meetings at the Global Mobile Broadband (MBB) Forum.
Huawei Wireless X Labs is currently concentrating basically for the 5G ecosystem and the four major research areas in 2017 are -
1. Connected Drones
2. Wireless Robotics
3. Cloud VR / AR
4. Connected Vehicles
The semi-annual output from X Labs with some very interesting stat is below for each key area –
And since the 5G and the next generation of mobile communication technology is going to be based on Cloud AI services, Huawei Wireless X Labs strategy is to promote infrastructure innovation towards all-cloud, drive cloud services as the one customer-facing platform, bring connection to unconnected and provide a better connected experience.
In the near future Cloud AI will work as a digital mind with various features and tasks like face recognition, voice recognition, cloud data rendering etc. Mobile network will work as a neural network for data transfer connecting things and cloud AI using the eMBB, uRLLC, mMTC ETC. And the device will work as the physical body and will feature cameras, sensor, user behavior data etc.
Recently Huawei also developed its latest smartphone processor Kirin 970 that comes with AI capability and will bring some nice features to the world of smartphone once Huawei Mate 10 is launched. You can get in-depth information about Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 970 processor by visiting the below link.
Also Check : Everything You Need to Know About Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 970 AI Processor
Cloud AI can benefit us in many ways specially in public safety, city security surveillance, inspection of the situation and rescue by drones etc. For example, cloud AI helped to find a lost child with shared public video surveillance within 15 hours on January 27th, 2017 in Hubei Wuhan, China. Another example is a drone arrived at an earthquake scene in Sichuan Jiuzhaigou within 10 minutes on 10th August, 2017 to investigate the situation and provide information for rescue work.
Also, we had the demo of a drone capable of very long distance flights along with a smart helmet called Seeing Eye Helmet designed to help visually challenged people. The helmet uses multiple cameras and sensors to detect the environment and objects around the visually impaired user and provide voice guidance and feedback for safety.
Huawei Wireless X Labs is currently working with more than 186 industry partners and on more than 45 projects including tele-operated driving, seeing eye helmet, wireless PLC in smart factories, connected drones for tourism and inspection, cellular assisted high accuracy positioning etc.
X Labs collaborate with partners in below three levels –
1. Industry – Cross-industry Round Table Sessions, White-papers etc.
2. Research – Business Model Research, Joint Lab Collaboration etc.
3. App Development – R&D Investment, Application Development etc.
X Labs has very good collaborative relationship with various industry organization like GSMA, 5GPPP, GTI etc for research and development. It is also collaborating with China Mobile 5G Innovation Center and looking forward for more.
Huawei X Labs is working towards a better future and a better connected world with its research, development and collaboration to serve individuals and businesses. After seeing few product prototypes and demos, I am really excited and looking forward to see more coming out of Huawei Wireless X Lab research centers.
Huawei Wireless X Labs is a new research initiative and platform that will work to bring together the operators, vertical industry partners and industry leaders to jointly drive innovation in business and technology, explore future use cases for mobile applications, and to promote an open industry ecosystem.
The mission of Huawei Wireless X Labs is to discover, develop, and nurture new applications that will make great contributions to the wireless communication industry through in-depth researches on wireless network services and users to construct an open and robust ecosystem.
At the Mobile World Congress 2017, Huawei showcased some of X Labs products and grabbed eyeballs. The robotic drummer was one of my personal favorite. You can watch it in the below video.
That's just AWESOME... @Huawei got a freaking robotic rockstar here at X-Labs... Technology Rocks, literally 🤘cc @FacingChina @HuaweiMobile pic.twitter.com/wFVX9LWgww— Shaan Haider (@shaanhaider) February 27, 2017
And in Huawei Connect 2017 event, I came to know more about the X Labs Wireless in a special session with Mr. Alex Wang, President of Huawei Wireless X Labs. I also had the opportunity to see the demo of some recent X Labs projects.
Huawei Wireless X Labs is basically divided in below three domains :
mLab / People : Consumer-centric joint innovation on applications and technologies
hLab / Household : Wireless-home-broadband-centric innovation
vLab / Verticals : Vertical-industry-oriented research
Huawei Wireless X Labs
mLab
There are 3.9 billion mobile digital life users in 2017. So, obviously people’s communication requirements are increasing in each medium every day. mLab analyzes these requirements for various communication mediums like voice, image, video, HD video, augmented reality (AR), virtual reality (VR), etc. to provide a better end-to-end solution for best user experiences
For example, the U-vMOS (User, Unified, Ubiquitous - video Mean Opinion Score) is a new standard for evaluating video experience and it helps in constructing a user experience-based MBB (Mobile Broadband) network.
vLab
Vertical industries are moving towards a digital transformation and 90 billion things will be connected by 2025. So vLab explores and studies various industry applications like low-latitude seamless coverage of mobile networks, ultra-long-distance drone flights, industrial robots coordination using mobile networks, Internet of Vehicle (IoV) applications supported by mobile networks etc. for vertical industries along with research on mobile networks for the digital transformation of the energy, medical care, logistics, and government fields.
hLab
According to predictions, there will be 0.8 billion home wireless broadband families in the world by 2020. hLab studies and researches how to use operators' network to its maximum potential to connect unconnected households, bridge the digital divide; bring 4K resolution video content and VR available to all; and to enable smart homes, home security, household robots, family health, and home automation systems.
X Labs Innovation Center (XIC)
There are total four branches of the X Labs Innovation Center (XIC) in Germany, North America, Japan, and China each working focused on something particular. For example China XIC concentrates on drones and service robots, while Germany unit works primarily on autonomous cars, smart factory and e-health.
The XIC will operate on a membership basis and hold annual meetings at the Global Mobile Broadband (MBB) Forum.
Huawei Wireless X Labs is currently concentrating basically for the 5G ecosystem and the four major research areas in 2017 are -
1. Connected Drones
2. Wireless Robotics
3. Cloud VR / AR
4. Connected Vehicles
The semi-annual output from X Labs with some very interesting stat is below for each key area –
And since the 5G and the next generation of mobile communication technology is going to be based on Cloud AI services, Huawei Wireless X Labs strategy is to promote infrastructure innovation towards all-cloud, drive cloud services as the one customer-facing platform, bring connection to unconnected and provide a better connected experience.
In the near future Cloud AI will work as a digital mind with various features and tasks like face recognition, voice recognition, cloud data rendering etc. Mobile network will work as a neural network for data transfer connecting things and cloud AI using the eMBB, uRLLC, mMTC ETC. And the device will work as the physical body and will feature cameras, sensor, user behavior data etc.
Recently Huawei also developed its latest smartphone processor Kirin 970 that comes with AI capability and will bring some nice features to the world of smartphone once Huawei Mate 10 is launched. You can get in-depth information about Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 970 processor by visiting the below link.
Also Check : Everything You Need to Know About Huawei's HiSilicon Kirin 970 AI Processor
Cloud AI can benefit us in many ways specially in public safety, city security surveillance, inspection of the situation and rescue by drones etc. For example, cloud AI helped to find a lost child with shared public video surveillance within 15 hours on January 27th, 2017 in Hubei Wuhan, China. Another example is a drone arrived at an earthquake scene in Sichuan Jiuzhaigou within 10 minutes on 10th August, 2017 to investigate the situation and provide information for rescue work.
Also, we had the demo of a drone capable of very long distance flights along with a smart helmet called Seeing Eye Helmet designed to help visually challenged people. The helmet uses multiple cameras and sensors to detect the environment and objects around the visually impaired user and provide voice guidance and feedback for safety.
Huawei Wireless X Labs is currently working with more than 186 industry partners and on more than 45 projects including tele-operated driving, seeing eye helmet, wireless PLC in smart factories, connected drones for tourism and inspection, cellular assisted high accuracy positioning etc.
X Labs collaborate with partners in below three levels –
1. Industry – Cross-industry Round Table Sessions, White-papers etc.
2. Research – Business Model Research, Joint Lab Collaboration etc.
3. App Development – R&D Investment, Application Development etc.
X Labs has very good collaborative relationship with various industry organization like GSMA, 5GPPP, GTI etc for research and development. It is also collaborating with China Mobile 5G Innovation Center and looking forward for more.
Huawei X Labs is working towards a better future and a better connected world with its research, development and collaboration to serve individuals and businesses. After seeing few product prototypes and demos, I am really excited and looking forward to see more coming out of Huawei Wireless X Lab research centers.