Interview Central Academy of Fine Arts Hao Ninghui & Aqara Peng Jiangbo: Working Together to Create Smart Lighting Human Value

On October 15, Aqara, a unicorn enterprise brand in the IoT industry, held a space intelligent design salon with the theme of "Intelligent Control of Light and Interpretation of Space Everything" at the Design School of the Central Academy of Fine Arts (hereinafter referred to as the "Central Academy of Fine Arts"). It not only showcased a number of intelligent lighting technology achievements in cooperation with the Central Academy of Fine Arts, but also discussed the future development direction of the deep integration of intelligent technology and light with representatives from the lighting industry across the country.

Hao Ninghui (left), dean of the School of Design at the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Peng Jiangbo (right), partner of Aqara

Reporters from China Lighting Network were also fortunate to attend the salon and interviewed Professor Hao Ninghui, a distinguished professor of the Yangtze River Scholars, chief expert on major projects of the National Social Science Fund, and dean of the School of Design of the Central Academy of Fine Arts, and Ms. Peng Jiangbo, partner and senior vice president of Aqara, in the media group interview session of the event to further understand the innovative development vitality that Aqara’s smart lighting technology achievements bring to the lighting industry.

Establish technological competitive advantages and use technology to serve people

In this salon, on-site guests learned that Aqara products use spatial intelligence technology to accurately capture every moment of a user's life, and make delicate lighting adjustments based on people's needs and subtle changes in the space atmosphere, so that every family can enjoy the lighting experience like a professional scene.

Regarding the technological innovation advantages of Aqara products, Professor Hao Ninghui praised that the design barriers established by Aqara have far surpassed other corporate brands of the same type. This corporate brand can use multi-sensors and millimeter-wave sensors, and uses sensor design thinking to the extreme. It truly uses design thinking to develop products. Its specific manifestations are: 1. Development and iterative design based on design thinking; 2. Allowing people to have an immersive experience during the interaction process while reducing interactive behaviors and touches; 3. Subtracting interactions; 4. Thousands of people and faces; 5. Creating a series of situation-aware products.

He specifically mentioned that the voice companion H1 released by Aqara not only has advanced technologies such as wake words, near-field voice, motion sensing, and AI large models, but will also be able to supplement big data support in the future. In addition to adding more sensors, it also requires sensor linkage, AI, and big data analysis to achieve automatic machine learning iterations and bring users a better whole-house smart experience.

Professor Hao Ninghui also appreciated that the products released by Aqara this time have universal, barrier-free and inclusive designs, and can be easily used by people with disabilities, blind people, and deaf-mute people. In the future, gesture operation may become an important direction in the humanized design of Aqara products. Through people-centered product application design, it embodies the company's human-centered philosophy of equal rights in technology, equal rights in design, and fairness in design, conveying its strong sense of social responsibility.

During the group interview, Ms. Peng Jiangbo also interpreted the humanized features of Aqara’s newly released products. She assured that Aqara will fully protect the privacy of users and obtain user authorization before obtaining any data, and will only upload user data in compliance with relevant laws and regulations if the user is willing. Because technology pursues human services, Aqara hopes to bring a more comfortable experience to users and make corresponding technical changes with the development of technology and changes based on social needs.

Ms. Peng Jiangbo also predicted that given that space intelligence technology still has a long maturity cycle, Aqara will, on the one hand, make more device-side products in the field of intelligent lighting based on different groups of people and situations, and on the other hand, make more sensor and controller device-side products, and combine it with AI technology to launch more commercial space intelligence solutions.

Sublimate user experience scenarios and cultivate intelligent design talents

Currently, Aqara has more than 800 service provider stores across the country, covering more than 570 cities and regions, providing customers and users with one-stop services from design, installation to debugging, and simulating multiple intelligent scenarios through 1:1 real-life space display, allowing customers and users to intuitively experience the effects of intelligent space.

Ms. Peng Jiangbo explained that the "thousands of people and thousands of faces" whole-house smart lifestyle created by Aqara is not only reflected in the product application effect, but also in the store space design. In different cities, Aqara will make corresponding changes in store space design according to the needs of different groups of people, so that more users can better contact and experience the intelligent lighting experience brought by Aqara.

The upgraded lighting aesthetics of space intelligence and the innovation of store space design also reflect Aqara’s emphasis on building technical talents. The awarding of the Innovation and Entrepreneurship Practice Base in the salon is a bold exploration and innovation by Aqara and the Central Academy of Fine Arts in the future talent training model in the field of intelligent product design.

As Ms. Peng Jiangbo said, the creation of a space intelligent dimming scene requires a certain amount of education costs. In this regard, she said that on the basis of "thousands of people, thousands of faces" in store design, Aqara will continue to train store technical engineers so that they can serve customers more easily and efficiently. Through this move, Aqara has not only strengthened its own store technical talent team, but also contributed to the technological innovation and development of the industry.

At the same time, Aqara also attaches great importance to the career growth of space designers, the core talents in the current design field. In this salon, Aqara carefully created a series of space intelligent dimming scenes based on humanism and nature. The purpose is to allow designers to interact and experience the charm of light control in person, while helping them to display and communicate solutions more efficiently to ensure the smooth implementation of design ideas.

What is more noteworthy is that with the current high integration of intelligent technology and the application end of various lighting subdivisions, lighting designers need to improve their creative thinking in order to adapt to the current trend of technological innovation and development in the lighting industry. In this salon, the display of Aqara's intelligent lighting technological achievements and the creation of spatial intelligent dimming scenes also proposed new strategies and methods for the cultivation of lighting design talents.

Professor Hao Ninghui pointed out that lighting designers in the intelligent era must not only have artistic thinking, but also understand technology and its application directions. Through interdisciplinary learning, they must absorb UX, industrial design, ergonomics and other knowledge related to intelligent technology, and constantly interact with intelligent technology talents to gain technical experience. They must also put the learned intelligent technology knowledge into practice with professional skills, so that they can adapt to the current development trend of the lighting industry and find more ideal career prospects.

Deepen school-enterprise cooperation and tap the potential of scientific and technological innovation

In this salon, in addition to the innovation and entrepreneurship practice base jointly created by Aqara and the Central Academy of Fine Arts becoming the focus of school-enterprise cooperation during the event, Professor Hao Ninghui’s explanation of the topic "Internet of Everything - Exploration of Future Lifestyles" also explained the core value and far-reaching influence of the innovative cooperation model between Aqara and the Central Academy of Fine Arts. His in-depth interpretation of Aqara's joint efforts with the Central Academy of Fine Arts and the National Social Sciences to build an "outstanding talent training platform for the full life cycle design of IoT smart products" also allowed the guests to witness the infinite motivation of both the school and the enterprise to create excellent product designs and explore academic topics.

Ms. Peng Jiangbo said that spatial intelligence and intelligent lighting are very new industry segments. The public's understanding of them only remains at the most basic theoretical level, and they have very little understanding of the results of the project combined with the lighting industry. To this end, Aqara hopes to use the social resources accumulated by university experts and scholars, combined with its own scientific and technological achievements and their product innovation and design concepts, to achieve the project results. This move will not only allow college students to understand the new trends in the development of lighting technology in advance, but also promote the lighting industry to a new level of development through industry-university-research cooperation.

Professor Hao Ninghui also added that the cooperation between Aqara and the Central Academy of Fine Arts is an innovative model of school-enterprise cooperation: 1. The two parties jointly develop joint courses; 2. Students from the Central Academy of Fine Arts can go to Aqara for immersive internships; 3. The two parties achieve joint creation and jointly build products; 4. Jointly conduct theoretical sorting to empower the advancement of industry, academia and research; 5. Jointly proof and display works, and hold exhibitions related to intelligent design. Through a series of cooperative and innovative measures, both parties are committed to making industry-university-research cooperation projects practical.

Among the results of school-enterprise cooperation in this salon, Ms. Peng Jiangbo also introduced the intelligent lighting renovation project of the teaching building jointly implemented by Aqara and the Central Academy of Fine Arts. This project is not only the venue for the salon, but also a vivid example of the importance of the use of light in space design, allowing the guests to have a deeper understanding of the innovative power behind Aqara's unique "spatial intelligent lighting" technology. The successful implementation of this project is also an important manifestation of the perfect cooperation between the school and the enterprise in creating intelligent lighting technology.

Ms. Peng Jiangbo said that in this project, the Central Academy of Fine Arts’ eager demand, coupled with Aqara’s mature “spatial intelligent lighting” technology, allowed both the school and the enterprise to have no communication costs at all, and the project was approved very quickly. The smooth progress of this project also lies in the fact that both the school and the enterprise share common concepts and values. The mutual recognition between the two parties behind the topic of space intelligence exploration has further reduced the discussion, demonstration and application stages of the project, allowing the project to be implemented faster and to a higher standard.

Regarding the future direction of cooperation between Aqara and the Central Academy of Fine Arts, Professor Hao Ninghui concluded from past academic experience that concepts can guide the future. He said that the Central Academy of Fine Arts proposed a similar plan three years ago for the creation form of Aqara voice companion H1. With the implementation of Voice Companion H1, it further proves that the good ideas of some teachers and students at the Central Academy of Fine Arts can predict the future.

Professor Hao Ninghui further expressed his expectation that Aqara and the Central Academy of Fine Arts can put the products implemented during the cooperation into production and put them on the market in the future, so that more consumers can enjoy the technological happiness brought by the cooperation between the school and the enterprise. More importantly, the innovative cooperation model between Aqara and the Central Academy of Fine Arts can be extended to more universities and enterprises, thereby making significant contributions to the country's technological innovation and talent cultivation.