In many AI hardware devices (such as AI assistants, robots, AI headphones, etc.), voice conversations are typically divided into three consecutive stages: ① Perception Stage (Listen), in layman’s terms: the hardware first “understands what you are saying”. Key technologies: ASR (Automatic Speech Recognition), wake word detection. Action: the microphone captures your voice → converts it to text. Example: when you say “help me check the weather”, the device recognizes that you said this. ② Thinking Stage (Think), in layman’s terms: processing your request and figuring out how to respond. Key technologies: LLM (Large Language Model), knowledge base, agent. Action: analyzing your semantics → calling tools/searching for information → generating an answer. Example: the AI checks the weather for tomorrow and organizes a response. ③ Expression Stage (Speak), in layman’s terms: delivering the result “to you”. Key technology: TTS (Text-to-Speech), along with WebSocket/RTC to push the response to the device for playback. Action: text → speech → speaker playback. Example: “Tomorrow will be sunny with a temperature of 22 degrees.” The entire process flows seamlessly: Listen → Think → Speak. It resembles a real human conversation: first listen → then think → then reply. In AI hardware, these three steps are usually seamlessly connected, sometimes achieving almost real-time back-and-forth dialogue through RTC. A mnemonic for remembering: clear listening (ASR), clear thinking (LLM/Agent), pleasant speaking (TTS).