(Yicai Global) Sept. 4 -- TCL has opened an artificial intelligence research center in Polandto help the Chinese consumer electronics giant broaden its product offering, which already includes AI televisions.

The Warsaw center's findings in computer vision and ultra-high-resolution video will be applied to TCL's global business, Yan Xiaolin, chief technology officer at the Huizhou-based company, told Yicai Global at the institute's opening ceremony.

"In the next three years, we hope to turn this center into one of the most excellent AI research and development hubs worldwide in terms of realizing value," Yan said.

With a focus on deep learning, the center will recruit about 100 to 150 local researchers in the next two to three years, Yan said, adding that TCL will make full use of resources at local universities, as well as those in eastern Europe and Russia.The center has already signed a deal with the faculty of mathematics, informatics, and mechanics at the University of Warsaw.

Like a number of other Chinese companies, TCL is making a push into artificial intelligence. The major television maker has just released its latest AI TV sets at the Internationale Funkausstellung Berlin, a fair that bills itself as"the world's leading trade show for consumer electronics."

TCL believes machine intelligence will "createmany new productforms," Chairman and Chief Executive LiDongsheng said in an interview with Yicai Global on Aug.31. "Things wecan'tevenimagine will beproducedand many of theseinnovative products willwinmarket acceptance."

The consumer electronics market will see new groundbreaking smartphones in the next three years, Yan predicted, adding that AI is the main trend.

Compared with TCL's AI research institutions in the US, Hong Kong and Shenzhen, the European research hub will focus more on basic and foresight technologies.The center will have four specific research areas, namely computer vision, comprehension of natural semantics, terminal-oriented AI, and big data analysis, General Manager Bartosz Biskupsk told Yicai Global.

The need for more cutting-edge tech exists as TCL's television sales have grown rapidly in Germany, France and the UK, Li said.

TCL already accounts for half of Poland's TV set production, according to Tomasz Olender, deputy general manager of the firm's Poland factory. Sister brand Thomson has a further 20 percent market share. Half of these products are high-end large-screen 4K televisions, he added.

The factory turned out 1.2 million sets last year, and this figure will increase to 2 million this year, according to Olender. Products can be delivered to Germany in a day; France in two; Spain and Portugal in three to four days, he added.

Some 95 percent of components used in the factory ship from China and with the China Railway Express routes expanding, it takes just 14 days to transport parts from Chengdu to Poland, Olender said.

Editor: Emmi Laine