Although Microsoft may have given up on consumer smart speakers, it has never given up on letting others develop intelligent devices based on its technology and hardware.
Microsoft’s newly launched Azure Percept is a hardware and service platform, centered around hardware designed by Microsoft and Microsoft’s Azure AI platform. While Azure Percept is an intelligent device that can process data on its own, when combined with the cloud, it is an ideal component of edge computing.
Microsoft unveiled its first products, Azure Percept Vision, a smart camera, and Azure Percept Audio, an intelligent audio system, at the online Ignite conference. Both devices can connect to the Azure IoT hub.
Of course, these services and devices could be used in smart devices that focus on the general consumer, but Microsoft has presented vertical industries as a typical application. Microsoft explained that by installing Percept Vision cameras on the assembly line, products with abnormal appearance can be identified and distinguished from other normal products. Basically, it was designed to work in conjunction with Azure Cloud, but the Azure Percept platform has enough performance to operate independently.
Microsoft said it is working with third-party chip makers and equipment manufacturers to build a new edge device ecosystem. “We started with the most common AI workloads: sight and voice, sight and sound, and we have laid out the blueprint for the future, so manufacturers can take advantage of the foundation we started,” said Roan Sons, head of Microsoft’s Edge and Platforms Group. Manufacturers can extend the basic blueprint to create any form factor that can take on any pattern in the world.”
Another piece of the puzzle, according to Microsoft, is using Microsoft’s Power platform. The representative feature of PowerApps is its own low-code or no-code platform, allowing users to participate in each part of programming without knowing the language of development. Microsoft said its goal is to lower the technical barriers to developing new edge devices.
It’s easy to see that Microsoft favors platforms far more than products. It may be over directly participating in consumer products such as Invoke speakers, but now it continues its platform strategy by encouraging other manufacturers to participate. [email protected]