Keynote Speech at Huawei Developer Conference: "Near Field Communication in All Scenarios, Breaking the Boundary of Smart Device Interaction"

Good morning, ladies and gentlemen. I am Hu Shibang. I am very honored to share with you the development of Huawei's near field communication.

Looking back at the development history of near field communication, early audio transmission and data transmission are well-known application scenarios. After that, the capabilities of near field communication have been extended in more application scenarios, such as location services and industrial-based device network interconnection. The demand for near field communication solutions is increasing. Judging from the data released by Bluetooth, in the face of the normalized new crown epidemic, the demand for near-field communication has increased significantly. It is estimated that by 2025, Bluetooth device shipments will reach 6 billion, with a compound increase rate of more than 10%, accounting for 70% of peripheral devices. We believe that the near field communication market is booming.

Advantage

Speaking of scenarios, Huawei’s full-scene strategy includes two ecosystems, namely the application ecosystem and the hardware ecosystem. In the hardware ecology, we generally refer to "1+8+N" (1 refers to mobile phones, 8 refers to PCs, smart screens, watches, headphones, etc., and N refers to lighting, home appliances, security and other equipment). They are an important part of the hardware ecology. How to realize the interaction between these devices? We cannot do without a basic capability, which is near field communication. Near field communication can use Bluetooth, WiFi, ultrasound and other technologies to achieve interaction, and it can be applied to multiple scenarios such as video sharing, office tools, and file transfer. What are its advantages?

One is to quickly find . Near field communication supports millisecond-level discovery speeds, transmission rates can reach 80 megabytes per second and cover multiple platforms. Currently, short-range communication service (HUAWEI Nearby Service) has joined HMS Core. The salient feature of HMS Core is to shield and optimize some underlying hardware differences. In other words, we can run short-range communication services well on Huawei and non-Huawei mobile phones and tablets. We call this concept "initial end", that is, non-Huawei's external equipment and some terminals that Huawei cooperates with can run smoothly, making it easy for developers to use.

second is the data transmission and discovery capability . How does Huawei's short-range communication service realize easy discovery and high-speed connection? The mobile phone and the computer are cross-platform, which can directly carry out convenient collaboration and connection, and support functions such as large file transfer, resumable transfer, and smart screen projection. We can also perform short-range WiFi sharing, package the Wi-Fi configuration of different devices as a whole into the short-range communication service, so that users do not need to perform repeated device configuration, password input and other operations, and can complete discovery and connection with one click.

third is the spatial perception and measurement capability . Here I will cite a case: In the face of the global new crown pneumonia epidemic, people often see news about the need to find close contacts in a certain train on social media. However, the effect of "finding a needle in a haystack" is relatively weak. We have been wondering whether there is a technical means that can quickly and easily perceive which people you have contacted at a certain point in time and where. Later, we discovered that Huawei's short-range communication service can achieve close contact tracking of the new crown pneumonia epidemic. The principle is that the short-range communication service can send warning broadcasts to users' mobile phones, watches, etc., and can also perform peripheral scanning, save contact records within a distance of 30-50 meters, and automatically transmit them to government-designated applications, and save the data in the cloud . Under the premise of ensuring user privacy, once an infection chain is found, the government can find matching user groups from the cloud contact records. As a result, we have technically realized the tracking of the virus.

In fact, we have launched this service for nearly two years. The communication itinerary card within China is connected to this service. I believe that all the guests have used it when they visit Songshan Lake; abroad, we currently have access to government applications (Apps) in 8 countries. All of these require peripheral awareness in short-range communication services. For example, in a sports scene, a user's movement time is 14 seconds, and the distance is about 15 to 25 meters, and the recognition success rate of bright screens such as mobile phones and watches reaches 80%. Even if the screens of these devices are turned off, the near field communication service can also perform peripheral sensing with an accuracy rate of more than 20%.

application

There are many application scenarios for short-distance communication services in transmission. Usually, a scene closely related to everyone's work and life is to use some office applications to share and transfer files. Poor transmission stability, low transmission rate, and long transmission waiting time are all problems that people often complain about. The stable connection and high-speed transmission capability of short-distance communication services can solve this pain point. The principle is relatively simple, that is, quickly establish a connection through BLE, and transfer files through WiFi, and the rate can reach more than 60-80 megabytes per second.
At present, we integrate common tools such as ES file browser and Kuaiya. Even overseas, due to our better 5G and network development, we will focus on file sharing as a core capability. Of course, through this ability, we have also seen the difference between domestic and overseas situations. For example, in Asia, Africa, Latin America, Southeast Asia and other regions, eggplant technology is very famous. Its applications have long been ranked among the top three in the region. Why is this? We found that it is the file transfer and sharing that relies on short-distance communication, which has attracted a considerable user group.

Near-field communication services can also be applied to smart car scenarios. Everyone in the room who drives, must use the car key frequently, or press the switch to turn on and off the car lock. So how do we make smart cars turn on and off the lock in a safe and senseless way? Ideal Car, an electric vehicle startup company and recently listed on NASDAQ, has realized the non-sense Bluetooth key function through short-range communication service. The car broadcasts Bluetooth according to the beacon format. When the user brings the mobile phone close to the car, the ideal car App will be awakened, and at the same time, identity authentication, distance measurement and other services will be performed, so that the vehicle flashes to welcome the owner, and automatically unlocks and prepares for departure. Very dazzling. At present, we have cooperation in this area with smart cars such as Ideal and Xiaopeng.

Next, I would like to introduce the application of range and angle measurement capabilities in short-range communication services.

I don’t know if you have such a pain point: When we use a computer, we sometimes extend several screens. There are differences in the mouse control between these displays, and the dragging experience is not smooth. This is the lack of precise space and distance perception capabilities between devices. A similar scenario is how to accurately judge the distance within 30-50 cm when the device is paired with Bluetooth, instead of pulling up other people's mobile phones to pop up the pairing box when it exceeds the predetermined range. This also derives more application scenarios, such as finding small items, and the ability to measure distance and angle can play a big role.

The realization of range and angle measurement capabilities can be achieved in a fusion way. First of all, we rely on the ultrasonic ranging and angle measurement algorithm to quickly match the angle and distance. The angle measurement includes two ends, one end is the mobile phone end, and the other end is the item to be distanced. The microphone receives reference values such as ultrasound and temperature, measures the angle, and finally measures the distance. For us, a lot of work is to optimize the algorithm and train the model in order to achieve very high accuracy. Bluetooth distance measurement also uses similar capabilities, that is, to accurately measure the attenuation of the ultrasonic signal to obtain accurate measurement values. In our practical case, the angle measurement accuracy can be controlled within plus or minus 10 degrees of error, and the range error is about plus or minus 5 cm. Therefore, we believe that this range and angle measurement capability is safe to meet the search for items, etc. Demanding product demands.

In this part, our bidding product is Apple’s UWB. Our experience is basically equal to UWB, but the cost of UWB itself is very high. For partners, UWB itself may account for 1/4 of the cost of partners’ products. Even more, this is unacceptable. The ultrasound technology does not have this problem. The speaker/buzzer is used, and the ultrasound does not need to be customized. The mobile phone already has distance measurement, and the additional cost can be considered zero. There is also the issue of coverage. UWB will only reserve UWB for Iphone12 and above devices, and basically all terminals of Huawei can cover it. We are also the first to implement ultrasonic ranging and angle measurement on the Huawei MatePad released in May 2021. It can automatically perceive the position of the extended screen at 360 degrees and realize free cross-screen collaboration with the Pad and PC.
The near field communication service will provide more open capabilities, which is very convenient and easy to use. Developers and partners are welcome to cooperate and achieve a win-win situation to achieve smooth interaction in all scenarios. Thank you all!

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