In recent years, with the rise and popularity of the metaverse concept, the Chinese people’s demand for virtual content has increased under the superimposed epidemic situation, and consumer-grade VR hardware has developed rapidly. The development of virtual digital humans has also stepped into the fast lane.
A virtual human, also known as a digital human, is a "person" that exists in the digital world. Using information technology and artificial intelligence technology, the whole body and body movements of a person are digitized and visualized in all directions, and finally people in real life are accurately reproduced in real life. Analog builds in a digital world.
With the maturity of AI, 5G, VR and other technologies, digital humans, as an important interaction carrier between users and the virtual world, have a broad potential market. According to research data, by 2025, the scale of China's digital human market can reach tens to hundreds of billions of yuan, which has also attracted many companies to rush in. At present, competition in the field of digital humans is fierce, and product homogeneity is relatively serious, but there are not many institutions that truly own original intellectual property rights.
According to incomplete statistics from 01 Think Tank, as of the end of 2021, Chinese institutions have applied for a total of 1,322 digital human patents in China, including over 200 applications from universities and over 110 applications from Internet giants. As of the end of 2021, a total of 58 institutions have been granted patent authorization, and the enterprises involve technology giants, universities, digital human field enterprises and banks.
Ranked according to the number of digital human patent applications, Zhuiyi Technology, which was established only 6 years ago, performed well, ranking first in the number of patent applications, and 15 of the 67 patent applications were authorized. Baidu has the largest number of patents approved and authorized, and 20 of the 51 digital human patent applications have been successfully authorized.
Tencent , SenseTime, Huya, Light Year Infinity and Huawei all entered the top ten list. It is worth noting that Huya Technology and SenseTime have no invention patent authorizations yet, and the authorized patents of Light Year Infinity and Huawei are all invention patents.
Table 1: Top 30 Chinese digital human patent applications list
Data source: Wisdom Bud, Zero One Think Tank
Baidu: Rapid patent layout, release of intelligent digital human platformBaidu, an All in artificial intelligence company, is the company that pays the most attention to the field of digital humans among domestic Internet giants, and has a large number of related patent applications. As of the end of 2021, Baidu has applied for 51 digital human patents, twice that of Tencent.
On November 29, 2021, the first super-realistic celebrity digital human in China that can realize user interaction in the APP-Gong Jun digital human was officially launched on the Baidu APP. After entering the function interface, the user can interact with "Gong Jun" in real time, such as asking questions such as the weather, "Gong Jun" will quickly identify, search, and voice broadcast the first search result. In addition, the user can also order "Gong Jun" to complete some control functions in the APP, such as turning on the night mode and entering the bookshelf page.
On December 27, 2021, Baidu released the intelligent digital human platform "Baidu Smart Yunxiling" for the first time at the AI Developers Conference, providing a one-stop virtual platform for radio and television, mutual entertainment, finance, government affairs, operators, retail and other industries. Creation and operation services of hosts, virtual employees, virtual idols, and brand spokespersons.
Chasing Technology: The most patent applications, digital human products have been successfully commercializedFounded in 2016, Zhuiyi Technology has applied for as many as 67 digital human patents, surpassing Baidu. The product application of Zhuiyi Technology covers e-commerce, government affairs, finance, telecommunications and other fields. Among them, the "Xiaoyi" anchor is an intelligent virtual anchor applied to the e-commerce live broadcast platform, which can realize the interaction with the audience in the live broadcast room and help Merchants accumulate fan groups and increase actual transaction volume.
The "TAX" virtual digital human service created by Zhuiyi Technology for the Dalian Taxation Bureau provides millions of taxpayers with efficient interactive services integrating consultation, handling, inquiry, appointment, and response to appeals. Because of this, "Tacos" has gradually become a "tax influencer" loved by taxpayers.
Tencent: From "Digital Man" to "Sapient Man"Tencent, as one of the technology giants earlier in the field of digital humans, has made frequent moves in recent years. Tencent Sapient has been applied in finance, media, government affairs, cultural tourism, public services and other scenarios, taking on various roles such as agent customer service, audit interview, financial consultant, information broadcast, exhibition host, tour guide and so on.
In June 2021, "Xiao Zheng", a digital reporter from Xinhua News Agency and the world's first digital astronaut, jointly created by NExT Studios, a subsidiary of Tencent Interactive Entertainment, and Xinhua News Agency, will appear; Customized role services can be provided with different professional identities and skills such as browsing, financial customer service, multilingual anchors, and sign language anchors.
In addition, Tencent Music Entertainment Group and Wave have reached a strategic partnership and will jointly explore the blue ocean of virtual concerts. Tencent games have also successively launched digital characters such as the virtual boy group "Unlimited Kings". In 2022, during the broadcast of ice and snow events in the Winter Olympics, Tencent's 3D sign language digital intelligent person "Lingyu" will serve as the CCTV AI sign language interpreter and provide sign language commentary services for some games. This is also the industry's first live broadcast of AI sign language commentary events.
Huya Technology: Deeply cultivating digital human live broadcasting, strengthening digital human interaction scenariosIn October 2021, Huya Technology published the patent of "Digital Human Live Streaming Method, Device, Live Streaming Management Equipment, and Readable Storage Medium". This patent can combine virtual scenes and digital human models to output images with good coordination and high fidelity to the audience for live broadcasting, so as to enhance the audience's sense of substitution in live viewing and optimize the interactive effect of live broadcasting.
In December 2021, Huya's virtual idol "Double Ponytails" appeared for the first time as a life-like 3D digital human at the "Pink Versus Anniversary Song Concert" jointly organized by Huya Live and "Mini World". In the future, Huya's avatar will also be deeply involved in user interaction, on-site hosting, etc., to further enrich the application scenarios of avatars.
Huawei: Digital Humans Will Drive Digital Content Production LinesIn September 2021, Huawei released its first digital human "Yunsheng", and has officially "joined" Huawei as a new employee. Yunsheng relies on Huawei Cloud technology and powerful AI capabilities. Relying on the empowerment of technology, what Huawei can achieve is not just a scene created by digital humans, but a production line of digital content.
In addition, Huawei has built a digital human platform "MDH" for TV media, animation, film and television, live broadcast, education, finance and other industries. Based on the cloud-based digital human production line, it provides high-quality, high-efficiency, intelligent digital human model production, Skills training and content production capabilities lower the threshold for the application of digital humans and facilitate the inclusive application of digital humans in thousands of industries.
Author | Xu Wenwei Zhang Zhuojun
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