Qualcomm and NetEase Youdao Drive the Implementation of Innovative On-Device AI Application Experiences

Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated (NASDAQ: QCOM), and NetEase Youdao announced they are working together to accelerate the implementation of Youdao’s real-scene augmented reality (AR) translation based on select Qualcomm® Snapdragon™ Mobile Platforms, utilizing the Qualcomm® Artificial Intelligence (AI) Engine components. This new enablement is first implemented on the Android platform. Users can experience real-scene AR translation in Chinese, English, Japanese, and Korean simply by launching the Youdao Translator App, making their smartphone cameras pointing at texts that need to be translated instead of taking pictures, all without having to rely on network or cloud processing.

Enabling offline real-scene AR translation on mobile devices requires support from advanced AI technologies. Qualcomm AI Engine can accelerate the workload processing for on-device deep neural network (DNN) to deliver superior mobile user experiences. Taking dynamic tracking and recognition as an example, unlike static camera translation, the real-scene AR translation completes the recognition when devices are in motion, which sets higher requirements for the processing performance. Through working with Qualcomm Technologies to optimize the Qualcomm AI Engine, Youdao achieved up to 10X increase for the speed of recognition while expanding motion tracking from 0.3 to 0.5cm originally to up to 3cm and reduced 70% invalid recognition in motion, which greatly improved overall recognition accuracy.

“Qualcomm Technologies is committed to being a leader in bringing rich use cases and innovative user experiences using AI and AR on Snapdragon Mobile Platforms,” said Keith Kressin, senior vice president, product management, Qualcomm Technologies, Inc. “We are excited to be a part of the implementation of Youdao’s real-scene AR translation using AI on the Android platform through the close workings between Qualcomm Technologies and Youdao.”

“Youdao real-scene AR Translation is a set of new visual interaction-based translation solution that incorporates four leading AI technologies, namely dynamic tracking, OCR segmented analysis, neural network translation, and AR rendering. Now, it is available on Youdao Translator App,” said Yitao Duan, Chief Scientist, NetEase Youdao. “Benefited from our efforts with Qualcomm Technologies, we can bring the real-scene AR translation to more Android users with the support of Qualcomm AI Engine, allowing users to enjoy convenient and accurate translation services virtually anytime, anywhere.”

Youdao, a mobile Internet application subsidiary of NetEase, has brought disruptive technological innovation to the translation industry almost every year. At present, Youdao has launched several products with excellent reputations, such as Youdao Dictionary, Youdao Translator, Youdao Human Translators, etc. in the field of language translation applications and services. The company owns key AI technologies of Neural Network Translation (YNMT), voice recognition, image recognition, and real-scene AR translation, etc., and it supports translation in 107 languages including Chinese, English, Japanese and Korean, covering 186 countries and regions around the world.

Qualcomm AI Engine, introduced at MWC 2018, is comprised of several hardware and software components to accelerate on-device AI-enabled user experiences on select Snapdragon mobile platforms. Now, it is already available on Snapdragon 845, 835, 820, 660 and the recently-announced Snapdragon 710. Over the past 12 months, AI Engine optimizations have boosted average AI performance across the breadth of the Snapdragon SoC portfolio by more than 200%.

At Qualcomm AI Day in Beijing on May 24, 2018, Qualcomm Technologies and NetEase Youdao are expected to conduct a live demonstration of Youdao Translator’s real AR translation.

About Qualcomm

Qualcomm invents breakthrough technologies that transform how the world connects and communicates. When we connected the phone to the Internet, the mobile revolution was born. Today, our inventions are the foundation for life-changing products, experiences, and industries. As we lead the world to 5G, we envision this next big change in cellular technology spurring a new era of intelligent, connected devices and enabling new opportunities in connected cars, remote delivery of health care services, and the IoT — including smart cities, smart homes, and wearables. Qualcomm Incorporated includes our licensing business, QTL, and the vast majority of our patent portfolio. Qualcomm Technologies, Inc., a subsidiary of Qualcomm Incorporated, operates, along with its subsidiaries, all of our engineering, research and development functions, and all of our products and services businesses, including, the QCT semiconductor business. For more information, visit Qualcomm’s website, OnQ blog, Twitter and Facebook pages.