R&D Stories: Enabling Higher Quality Audio Capture for Smartphones

In this article for audioXpress, Jyri Huopaniemi and Kai Havukainen from Nokia Technologies, the licensing arm of Nokia, explain how to enable higher quality audio capture for smartphones and introduces us to some of the most exciting audio recording features ever available for mobile devices. How would you like to be able to completely isolate sound sources or zoom in on specific sounds and cancel the rest in location recordings, directly on a smartphone?

Dirac Research announced that its sound optimization technologies are now incorporated into the new line of Fujitsu PCs produced by Fujitsu Client Computing Limited (Kawasaki, Japan). According to Dirac General Manager of Mobile Erik Rudolphi, the expansion effectively transforms the audio experience delivered by desktop and laptop computers and points the way to the future for a product category that is increasingly being used for gaming and media streaming.

Cadence Design Systems announced the Cadence Tensilica HiFi 5 DSP for audio and voice, the company's first IP core optimized for high-performance far-field processing and artificial intelligence (AI)-based speech recognition processing. This fifth-generation HiFi DSP offers 2X audio processing and 4X neural network (NN) processing improvements versus the HiFi 4 DSP, making it ideal for voice-controlled user interfaces in digital home assistants and automotive infotainment.

iZotope has embarked in a new quest to make its most sophisticated audio technologies available to a wider number of users, through a new generation of software tools that provide simple solutions for audio mixing and processing. Using powerful new features like Track Assistant and Masking Meter, iZotope’s Neutron is able to identify perceptual frequency collisions getting any mixing session to an optimal starting point, while allowing creative control over all mix decisions.

Audionamix officially released the highly anticipated v3 upgrade to the full ADX audio source separation product line. ADX TRAX Pro 3 and ADX TRAX 3 boast faster separation processing speeds, new STEMS file format export, consonants annotation tool, and zoom-to-fit options; all of which allow users to work smarter when separating and isolating melodic content within a mono or stereo mastered mix.

Conexant’s new RoomAware Optimizer processing solution, part of the Conexant AudioSmart product family, has been adopted by LG Electronics for its 2016 lineup of OLED and UHD TVs. LG calls the feature ‘Magic Sound Tuning’ and allows users to automatically adapt speaker output to the room’s acoustics and the location of the TV in the room.