Syntiant Announces Voice-Enabled Ultra-Low-Power Reference Design for TWS Earbud Applications

Syntiant, the company focused on making edge AI a reality for always-on applications, announced a new reference design that will enable ODMs and OEMs to easily and quickly deploy ultra-low-power, edge AI voice processing applications in true wireless earbuds. The solution enables multi-lingual custom wake words and speech commands, supported by data training and modeling, providing a complete, end-to-end solution for edge AI processing.

Amazon introduced the next-generation of Echo Buds, featuring an all-new design, premium audio architecture for crisp, balanced sound, custom-designed Active Noise Cancellation technology, wireless charging capabilities, improved microphones for better call quality, and hands-free access to Alexa. Not many bought the first model anyway, so the announcement of the all-new second-generation Echo Buds is not that surprising, considering Amazon considers hardware as a pure extension of its services ecosystem.

According to the latest market research by Futuresource Consulting, the global headphones market held up better than anticipated in the period April-June 2020, as units and prices fared relatively well, particularly from mid-May. That’s according to the latest preliminary quarterly tracker results from Futuresource, which reveals a 13% year-on-year increase in value for Q2. The firm also reports that units posted an 8% year-on-year contraction for the quarter, better than expected.

The Apogee Sennheiser AMBEO Smart Headset, featuring 3D audio recording, can now be connected to the USB-C port on a Mac, iPad Pro or Windows 10 PC using the Anker USB-C to Lightning Audio Adapter. As Apogee Electronics confirms, microphone and remote functionality is retained, including 3D recording when used with iOS or Windows 10 apps that capture stereo audio. Users can explore the AMBEO Smart Headset not only for 3D audio recording capabilities and high fidelity sound listening but also to tune in or tune out surround sounds.