Audience eS700 voice processing chips. (via Audience)
With the myriad of NSA spying scandals hitting the headlines on a weekly basis, it’s surprising that it hasn’t over-shadowed the legitimacy of using ‘listening technology’ for touchless interaction with mobile devices. In that regard, Audience has released their eS700 line of advanced voice processing chips for sampling, which should be incorporated into new mobile devices by the second quarter of this year. Just like the new Kinect sensor from Microsoft, the chip actively ‘listens’ for voice commands, even while the device is off, to interact with the mobile device and navigate/use applications hands free (touch interaction is so early 21st century). The key behind their new chips is the inclusion of VoiceQ, which enable the chip’s always on feature that actively listens for key voice phrases in its immediate surroundings without the need to siphon off trickling amounts of power (less than 1.5mA) to do so. The technology also eliminates the pause-breaks associated with other devices in regards to those voice commands. For instance, users can turn on their devices and have them proceed to the needed function or app simply by saying ‘power on and play music’ for example, without the need to separate those commands. Other features of Audience’s new eS700 line include noise cancelation (even in windy conditions), speech restoration to increase voice quality in noisy environments and full-band 48 kHz voice processing. It also features a new programming API that allows OEMs to create apps that takes advantage of the voice interactive features and incorporate them seamlessly into their next-gen devices. While various manufacturers are already sampling the chips, its unknown as to exactly which ones will feature them in their new product lines.
The NSA doesn't officially endorse these new chips but they like what they 'hear'.
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