Fortemedia Introduces Low-Power iM501 Voice Processor for Wearables and Smart Home Applications

April 11 2017, 03:10
Voice processing has become one of the indispensable technologies on smart home and wearable devices. Precise and prompt voice command recognition, along with minimizing power consumption are key for these applications. Small array microphone and voice acoustic processing technology specialists, Fortemedia introduced its new iM501 voice processor, embedding a high-end Tensilica HiFi Mini DSP core, and providing a best-in-class solution for always-on voice detection with low power consumption.
 

Key features and benefits for the new iM501 voice processor include a high performance voice trigger and wake-up for mobile and wearables, OEM support of self-defined trigger phrases and vocabulary integration, and flexibility in adjustable thresholds for balancing between trigger accuracy and power saving. The iM501 processor is also best-suited to IoT (Internet of Things) and automotive applications, enabling high speech quality in hands-free communication and superior precision for voice command with Fortemedia's advanced voice processing technologies.

Furthermore, the new iM501, in association with Fortemedia's latest iM205 smart microphone processor, supports ultra-low power developments, building on 474 kBytes on-chip memory with automatic voice buffer scheme to truly achieve multiple voice-trigger engines, smart microphone controls, with a minimum of 3 seconds of voice buffer, largely improving both human-to-machine and human-to-human voice communications. The firmware framework also implements a VOS (Voice Operating System) to facilitate data path plug-in of 3rd-party algorithms.

With its iSAM acoustic processing technology and the new iM501 and iM205 processors, Fortemedia takes the VID (Voice Interface Device) concept a step further. "In today's highly mobile world, voice communication happens everywhere," says Dr. Paul Huang, CEO of Fortemedia. "Smart Appliances, Wearables, and Autonomous Vehicles all demand precise voice recognition with low power consumption. Fortemedia's iSAM, the brand-new acoustic processing technology, enables VID products to continuously monitor environment noise, to optimize voice recognition using minimal power consumption to meet various industry standards."

Headquartered in Silicon Valley with global operations and offices in Asia, Fortemedia focuses on developing high quality solutions and semiconductor products to enhance human-to-human and human-to-machine voice communication. Fortemedia's ASIC devices and solutions with advanced voice processing technologies, SAM (Small Array Microphone), SAMSoft, and ForteVoice, have all been widely deployed in numerous commercial systems, allowing better user experiences in voice communications.
www.fortemedia.com
related items