Two years ago, a unique baby monitor that used artificial intelligence (AI) to accurately determine the cause of a baby's crying – whether the infant may be hungry, sleepy, or needs a diaper change – was launched in the childcare market. This baby monitor could even actively play soft, soothing music to immediately calm a baby. This product was called "Pixsee AI Smart Baby Monitor" and it was built by Shennona, a Compal subsidiary.
What's special about Pixsee is that it was the world's first consumer product to be certified by Microsoft's Azure IoT Hub. By utilizing the Azure IoT Hub at its core, Pixsee links the cloud, the monitors, and cell phones to integrally manage all Pixsee devices. It also realizes high-speed and safe services by utilizing Azure's encryption technology and multiple information security solutions, thereby allowing parents to safely use Pixsee AI smart baby monitor and various app services.
Shennona, a Compal subsidiary, has created "Pixsee AI Smart Baby Monitor" and has achieved high-speed and safe service design by integrating Pixsee and peripheral Internet of Things (IoT) products by using Azure IoT Hub; credit: Shennona Co., Ltd.
Integrates cloud and local encryption to achieve a worry-free and secure experience
Having had many years of experience in the medical industry, Shennona is expanding to cater to consumers of all ages. After developing smart medical solutions for the elderly, Shennona is currently striving to build the Pixsee brand to cater to newborns by utilizing its existing competencies in AI and IoT technology as well as strengths in product design, which have helped it to win the iF Design Awards from Germany in the past.
The purpose of Pixsee is to provide 24/7 care for babies while storing all precious memories, which could, for example, then be provided to the babies and their families. Pixsee's AI can gradually learn about and understand the people and objects found in the babies' environments. The Pixsee team focused on AI-enabled voice recognition in the first stage, but recently the team has moved into the large-scale introduction of AI-enabled image recognition technologies. These are the fruitful results of the Pixsee AI team's collaborations with Microsoft. Looking forward, Shennona will launch more peripheral equipment for Pixsee. Its features will gradually move from the basic requirement of providing "care" to a more well-rounded "edutainment" goal by introducing "learning" and "play" functions.
Pixsee's comprehensive collaborations with Microsoft include the following three aspects: First, to build a comprehensive encryption system for the cloud and local AIoT products in order to ensure total privacy protection for audio and video information, for both individuals and entire families. Second, to achieve a high-speed and safe service design by integrating Pixsee and peripheral IoT products by using Azure IoT Hub. Third, as information security laws become more stringent all over the world, Pixsee can accelerate its global expansion plans by relying on Microsoft's highly compliant information framework to fulfill the requirements of personal information protection laws throughout the world.
Acquires more market opportunities by riding on the shoulders of giants
Given Microsoft's strong AI team and its years of experience in AI research and development, Pixsee has made repeated efforts throughout the development process to utilize Microsoft's AI platform to augment the competencies of its own internal AI development team. For instance, in terms of safety, the covered face detection on a child requires an immediate response, and should therefore be deployed locally and directly built into the Pixsee device. On the other hand, the music scheduling service does not require immediate attention, so this function may be split up between different devices. Some of its features may be cloud-based and could take advantage of the AI derivative applications developed over several decades by Microsoft. This would help the Pixsee AI team to overcome its manpower constraints. By riding on the shoulders of the Microsoft giant, Pixsee can achieve faster deployment to win more market opportunities.
In addition, Pixsee uses financial institution-grade encryption for its baby monitor, which utilizes irreversible encryption alongside Azure's industrial encryption computing technology. Furthermore, in order to fully satisfy consumers' requirements for privacy protection, Shennona has also extended the length of encryption keys from 128 bits to 256 bits.
Pixsee's brand positioning is not only limited to baby monitors. Going forward, it will also strive to build a record of the most touching moments of all family members and record them through an AI-enabled, smarter day-to-day life. It is expected that Microsoft's continued support will be crucial to the Pixsee brand in the foreseeable future as Shennona moves toward more diverse developments.
Builds expandable core solutions to increase user loyalty
According to Terry Chang, Microsoft Asia-Pacific IoT Solution Specialist, there are three main types of assistance provided by Microsoft's services to Pixsee.
A. Device management - By using the Azure IoT Hub as a global device management platform, Pixsee was able to comprehensively realize device deployment and setup, remote data collection, firmware version control, device life cycle management, and edge-to-cloud safety management.
B. Information analytics - By using Azure Log Analytics in its backend, Pixsee could enhance the user experience and optimize the contents of its app by performing multi-dimensional information queries from different data sources, including the Pixsee app, remote device monitoring data, and consumer data.
C. Information management - Azure Data Lake Storage helps Pixsee implement big data management; by using Azure Data Lake's built-in data life cycle management function, hot and cold data could be automatically separated to not only reduce the cost of data storage but also allow Shennona's staff to focus on developing their core businesses.
Pixsee has made repeated efforts throughout the development process to utilize Microsoft's AI platform to augment the competencies of its own internal AI development team. For instance, in terms of safety, the covered face detection on a child requires an immediate response; credit: Shennona Co., Ltd.
Going forward, it is expected that there will be even more close-knit collaborations between Microsoft and Shennona's Pixsee. Microsoft's Senior Manager of Device Partner Sales Department Jimmy Huang has compiled three major directions. The first is "innovating quality solutions", in which Azure's AI, machine learning, and slew of tools and the Microsoft team's experience and technical support can facilitate Pixsee's team's development of more innovative solutions compatible with end users' usage environment, thereby helping them to cater to the users' lifestyles. The second is "strengthening information safety and transparency". Microsoft has always been committed to information security; it can integrate edge-to-edge protection, AI, and automated functions to tackle safety concerns from all angles. Since privacy is a key issue for all of Pixsee's various services, the company may use Microsoft's diverse information security services including Defender, Sentinel, and Purview to provide comprehensive information security protection and data governance.
Finally, in terms of "digital transformation", Microsoft will help the Shennona team build an expandable and repeatable core solution founded on Pixsee. This will benefit the further development of Shennona's terminal equipment, facilitate users' loyalty to its services, and finally help the company to create a broader living and caring platform with even more enriched solutions.