All items tagged with smart speakers and Qualcomm (8)

Voice Capture Challenges: The Threshold of the Golden Age of Voice

May 6, 2020 by Mike Klasco

Voice Capture Challenges: The Threshold of the Golden Age of Voice

Voice processing and recognition leading to the development of voice-based personal assistants is one of the decade’s greatest achievements and provides a unique opportunity for the audio industry. Leveraging those sophisticated technologies now available to the consumer electronics industry makes the investment on new designs much more exciting. In this article, Mike Klasco provides an introduction to the voice capture, signal processing and voice recognition challenges. This article was originally published in audioXpress, December 2018.

TDK Announces First MIPI Standard SoundWire MEMS Microphone

January 21, 2020 by audioXpress Staff

TDK Announces First MIPI Standard SoundWire MEMS Microphone

Among the many interesting demonstrations of new audio solutions for developers presented by TDK at CES 2020, the T5808 MIPI standard SoundWire microphone stands out as a "world's first," using the MIPI Alliance SoundWire compliant digital interface which allows bi-directional data flow. The T5808 is a multi-mode, low noise digital MEMS microphone in a small package, consisting of a MEMS microphone element and an impedance converter amplifier followed by a fourth-order Σ-Δ modulator.

Voice Algorithm Software Ecosystem Expected to Increase Significantly

May 14, 2019 by audioXpress Staff

Voice Algorithm Software Ecosystem Expected to Increase Significantly

The massive growth in the voice assistant market has created a vibrant ecosystem and significant opportunities for hardware and software developers. Total voice software unit shipments are expected to increase significantly to 2024, according to SAR Insight & Consulting. The firm latest report forecasts a larger increase in voice software, especially within home devices such as smart speakers, soundbars, smart TVs and smart appliances.

Qualcomm Launches AI-Enabled Highly Integrated SoCs and Dedicated Smart Speaker Platform

March 19, 2019 by audioXpress Staff

Qualcomm Launches AI-Enabled Highly Integrated SoCs and Dedicated Smart Speaker Platform

Qualcomm made two important announcements for audio developers, both bound to significantly impact the fast-growing market of smart speakers and new generation whole-home audio systems. The San Diego company announced the new QCS400 family of audio SoCs and the Smart Audio Platform 400 development kit, bringing smart speakers high-performance processing, Qualcomm AI Engine, superior connectivity, and multiple advanced audio and visual display capabilities in a single, power-optimized chip architecture.

Qualcomm Audio Consumer Insights Report Shows Rising Popularity of Wireless Headphones and Wireless Speakers

August 7, 2018 by audioXpress Staff

Qualcomm Audio Consumer Insights Report Shows Rising Popularity of Wireless Headphones and Wireless Speakers

Qualcomm has released its annual The State of Play 2018 report, with valuable insights on the fast-moving world of personal and home audio technology - including expectations and product purchase drivers for American, British and Chinese consumers. The new report shows, for the second year in a row, that sound quality is by far the highest ranked buying consideration when choosing wireless headphones or speakers. More than half of participants surveyed (53%) said they are planning to purchase completely wire-free earbuds.

MWC 2018 First Impressions: A Connected World Congress

March 3, 2018 by Joao Martins

MWC 2018 First Impressions: A Connected World Congress

A strange week we had, with most of the technology world focused on another edition of GSMA's Mobile World Congress (MWC), with the usual gush of new iPhone-clone announcements and most of the key semiconductor giants dividing their announcements with embedded world 2018, taking place at the same time in Nuremberg, Germany. Still, neither was much affected by the clash. MWC is more and more consumer electronics, autonomous cars, cloud solutions, and software developers pitching their latest ideas on social-engineered apps.

Qualcomm Introduces Smart Audio Platform and Speaker Development Kits for Multiple Voice Ecosystems

March 1, 2018 by Joao Martins

Qualcomm Introduces Smart Audio Platform and Speaker Development Kits for Multiple Voice Ecosystems

Following earlier demonstrations at CES 2018, Qualcomm introduced a series of new platforms, SoC and development kits targeting new advanced audio applications and smart speakers, including the support of key wireless technologies, voice and cloud ecosystems. Solutions include its Smart Audio Platform optimized for smart speakers, a 6-microphone far field voice platform qualified for Amazon AVS, Dolby Audio implementations for wireless speakers and much more.

Speakers and Voice Development - A Conversation with NXP

February 22, 2018 by Joao Martins

Speakers and Voice Development - A Conversation with NXP

After reviewing my notes from CES 2018 and the announcements from NXP, I decided it was fitting to share some parts of my interview with Martyn Humphries, vice president and general manager Media IoT and i.MX Applications Processors at NXP (and former Freescale executive). Basically, we discussed the environment that lead NXP to create its i.MX 8M single-chip media application processors, currently the most advanced integrated platform available for audio manufacturers.