Pengcheng International Airport.

It was close to one o'clock in the afternoon when he arrived at the airport, and Zhou Yang arrived a few minutes earlier than him in a business car.

"Nice old look? What do you talk about when you see your father-in-law and mother-in-law? Seeing Zhang Fan, Zhou Yang stepped forward to tease.

A few jokes, Zhou Yang's words led to Liu Wenhua, the person who traveled to the United States this time.

Not long after Zhang Fan returned to the hotel last night, he called to tell Sù about an unexpected surprise: in addition to the Fur Dog Browser team today, there is another team, to be exact, only one person.

According to an email sent by Liu Wenhua last night, the extra person is named Steven Bronck, an American Jew.

In the past, he was a software engineer in Silicon Valley, and participated in the development of Google's real room 'voice control system engineering'. This system is to operate the search engine through guò voice, and later due to the lack of good hardware support and experience effect, the project turned to Gmail voice service.

After that, Steven left Google and developed his own 'speech-to-text conversion software', which can convert sound into text and read the text aloud.

In 08, Steven received the attention of American investors, received a $700,000 investment and set up a company, and the recent financial crisis put him in trouble, followed by the bankruptcy of the company, the departure of his wife, and the repossession of the house by the bank.

In just half a month, he became nothing, and he couldn't even find a job because he was already a wanderer.

When Liu Wenhua met him, he was picking up drink bottles, which could earn 2-5 cents each.

After reading the email, Zhang Fan was very interested in this engineer who had just experienced the ups and downs of his life, and at the same time, he also began to pay attention to Liu Wenhua.

This time, Zhang Fan sent him to the United States only because he knew English and had a passport.

Zhang Fan began to pay attention to Liu Wenhua because of his vision and ambition.

Only he and Zhou Yang knew the layout of Xinghuo Software and the development plan of Weixin before these two projects. Others, including the top management of Xinghuo, didn't know what the specific direction was.

In yesterday's email, Liu Wenhua did build a mobile instant messaging software. The reason why he recommended Steven was to cooperate with the Seadog browser to develop intelligent voice control and increase the company's soft power in the future.

Although these three ideas are very vague, they all lead to three important directions in the field of mobile intelligence in the future.

1. Instant messenger representatives, penguins, prestige.

2. Browser, 360, UC and other companies.

3. Voice-controlled assistant, essential for intelligent systems.

Apple's IOS system has an amazing Siri voice assistant, Google Android also built in the voice assistant GoogleNow in 2012, and then Penguin Desktop, Xiaomi, Meizu and other companies are developing their own personalized voice assistants.

In 2013, these voice assistants are developing in the direction of better application, that is, 'artificial intelligence'.

After the establishment of Weixin, Zhang Fan only has two goals this year, that is, to develop an instant messaging software similar to 'Weixin' and an easy-to-use Android browser.

Wait for the two to gain a foothold, and only next year will they consider developing a voice assistant, or buying Siri voice assistant before Apple.

What he didn't expect was that Liu Wenhua actually found an expert in speech for him in only two days. Whether he is intentional or not, this kind of sharpness and foresight is not comparable to ordinary people.

……

Pick-up hall.

"This Liu Wenhua is a little clever and can be cultivated. But his ambition is not small, I don't like this, I don't know if he will become a white-eyed wolf if he is raised in the future. Talking about this, Zhou Yang chuckled.

Zhang Fan nodded and smiled: "It's a good thing to have ambitions, and as you said, 'I'm afraid that his ambition can't be contained', but you can give him a chance." If he's really smart, he can catch it. ”

"How is the Boss going to try?" Zhou Yang said curiously.

Zhang Fan pursed his lips and smiled: "Keep it secret for the time being." ”

During the conversation, his phone rang, and he turned his head to see Liu Wenhua coming out with the fur seal team members and Steven.

"Here we are." Zhang Fan refused the call, and Liu Wenhua did not call, but looked at it with a searching gaze.

Such a sharp feeling made Zhang Fan appreciate it a little more in his heart.

Liu Wenhua didn't know Zhang Fan's thoughts, he was especially excited at the moment, thinking of Zhang Fan's future reuse and countless bright futures. He knew he was right.

"Boss, these are members of the Sea Seal team, this is the head of the group, Liu Yi, Chen Xiaohu, Li Fei, Liu Ke, ......"

"This is Mr. Steven."

"Hello Mr. Zhang Fan, it's an honor to meet you." Steven shook hands with Zhang Fan in the greeting he had just learned. He knew that he only had one chance, and if he couldn't catch it, he would go back to the United States and be his own vagabond.

……

The car is moving.

The fur seal team was divided into two batches, Liu Yi, Steven, and Liu Wenhua rode in one with Zhang Fan, and the others took Zhou Yang's car.

After getting in the car, Zhang Fan asked Leo Yi about the research and development of the browser, and Leo Yi was very happy to take out the Google G1 purchased at the Google conference, and the first version of the fur dog they developed can already run on it, but there are still some compatibility problems.

Then there's the UI design aspect.

The software icon and the browser launch logo are the sea seal avatars they took from the Internet, and there is no sense of design at all.

However, the design belongs to the design, the overall browser operation is still very good, the sliding is very smooth, and the small functions such as sliding left and right to turn the page are designed very intimately.

"Why did it suddenly shut down?" Zhang Fan was operating, and suddenly the software automatically quit and disappeared.

"We have found this problem, which is caused by insufficient running memory, and we will reduce the running volume of the software in the next version," Leo explained. I believe it will improve in the future. ”

"Well, it's pretty good. Is this Google's own browser? Zhang Fan asked, pointing to the icon on the G1 screen.

"Yes." Liu Yi expected Zhang Fan to open it and use it, so that he would know where the sea seal was excellent.

Zhang Fan tried a few times and found that it was inferior to the sea dog in all aspects, so he tried other functions of this mobile phone. Wu Ge transplanted the Android system on Apple's 3G before, and he is no stranger to the ease of operation.

Zhang Fan is more curious about the hardware of the G1 mobile phone.

After seeing the real machine, the G1 design is not as brilliant as Zhang Fan imagined, the touch screen + side sliding operation mode looks high-end, but the actual operation requires both hands.

It's not at all like Apple's design of a virtual keyboard in the system, which can be operated with one thumb.

"I'm right to think so...... Multiple keyboards only add thickness and design difficulty. The G1 will not be produced until October, and the bulk shipment will be next year. Next year, my Spark first generation should also be unveiled! ”

Thinking of this, Zhang Fan was full of expectations and returned the phone to Liu Yi.

Liu Yi said curiously: "Boss, you said in the email that we are going to join your newly founded software company, so will we work with your Spark mobile phone company?" I mean, I want to meet Wu Ge, they're so cool! ”

Yesterday, Liu Yitong guò Zhang Fan's introduction, and Wu Getong guò met by email. Wu Ge showed the Seadog team the Spark optimized based on the Android system! What attracted them even more was the Spark mobile phone model machine that Wu Ge sent them, as well as the flat UI being designed.

For fur seals, the mobile phone and UI design are very cool, and no company in the United States has this kind of advanced design thinking!

"Yes." Zhang Fan smiled: "In the future, the WeChat message you will join, Xinghuo will become a neighbor, although they will not work together, but you will need to gather closely in the future." My idea was to make something like the iPhone. ”

"Cool!" Lew's heart was full of anticipation, and Steven sat on the side and wondered what they were talking about, but his translator, Mr. Liu, didn't say a word, and Steven felt that this was a kind of Chinese rule. He willingly complied.

"Mr. Steven, I heard that you used to work in 'language programs' and developed some language products. I don't know too much, can you explain it briefly? ”

Zhang Fan turned his head to look at him, and Liu Wenhua seized the opportunity to act as a translator to explain to Steven.

Steven knew his opportunity had come, and he had to seize it, whether the other party was Communist or not.

An hour later, two business vehicles drove into the parking lot of Yasheng Building, Zhang Fan and Steven were still discussing it, and the foreigner had already said that he was excited!

Because all the questions Zhang Fan asked were his ideas in the future! It doesn't get much cooler than that!

……

The entrance of the building.

"I get it." Zhang Fan invited Steven and others to talk while walking: "You mean, you take the 'voice-to-text' technology as the core and use it as the basis to develop speech artificial intelligence, right?" ”

“YES！ Zhang, you're smart! Steven excitedly said: "My technology can convert voice instructions into text program instructions, as long as a safety door is opened in the system, the system itself can be voice-controlled." For example, if I want to open a browser, I just need to say 'open the browser' to it, and it will convert the speech into a text subcommand to open the browser. ”

"Like Siri, have you heard of Siri? It's an app on Apple, and that's what it does. Damn, that thing sucks, it's a piece of shit! But he's more successful than me! I swear to be better than him! ”

"And the software you said you could chat with in language, and that one was very simple. Give me a week and I'll make one and make it running on your computer! ”

"Oh?" Zhang Fan smiled quietly and looked at Liu Wenhua.

"Damn, this Stephen doesn't know how to be more restrained, you're awesome, you're awesome, why are you the boss? Damn it! Liu Wenhua cursed in his heart, and translated the words as they were.

Zhang Fan was secretly happy when he heard this, if this was the case, he really picked up a treasure this time and came back, thinking of seeing Liu Wenhua Hospital more here.

"Where should I put him?"

……

PS: Today's 5.1 shift, I want to go out for a walk, so I can take a day off. (A good event for pie in the sky, cool mobile phones are waiting for you!) Follow the ~ point / Chinese network public account (WeChat add friends - add public account - enter qdread can be), participate now! Everyone has a prize, now pay attention to the qdread WeChat public account! ）