Dolphin Design Unveils Innovative IP for Sound Classification Reducing Power Requirements by 99%

Dolphin Design, a semiconductor designer of power management, audio, and processing devices with in-house ASIC design services, announced the launch of WhisperExtractor, a mixed-signal technology for voice and audio-enabled SoCs, enabling voice and sound classification at a record µW level power budget. The new technology paves the way to breakthrough always-on voice user interface, real time speech-to-text, and always-on sound detection.

British chip company XMOS announced the launch of the XVF3610 and XVF3615 next generation voice processors. These high-performance two-mic voice interfaces for wireless speakers, TVs, set-top boxes, smart home appliances, gateway products and more, are built on the company's xcore.ai chip infrastructure, and are available in a cost-effective and easy-to-integrate package. XMOS also kick-started an alpha program for its all new ‘Avona’ voice reference design.

DSP processing software specialist firm, Alango has been working to port the company's Voice Enhancement Package (VEP) to the NXP i.MX RT600 cross-over processor family, which is optimized for 32-bit immersive audio applications combining a high-performance Cadence Tensilica Hi-Fi 4 audio DSP core with a next-generation Cortex-M33 core. VEP is a set of Alango proprietary far-field voice enhancement technologies developed to improve human to machine interaction in a variety of applications.

Microchip Technology, via its Microsemi Corporation subsidiary, announced that its AcuEdge ZLK38AVS Development Kit for Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS) now introduces far-field voice pick up and the flexibility to build devices with multiple mic array configurations. The audio front-end solution with one, two and three mic configurations reduces bill of materials costs while addressing the requirements of small-form-factor designs.

Because every R&D department in the planet is currently looking at implementing voice, and everyone's looking at audioXpress for guidance on how to design a smart speaker, in this edition Kevin Connor, shares his insider knowledge on the topic. Connor, a Cirrus Logic engineer, explains how to provide audio and voice solutions, and design products that sound great and respond reliably to voice commands, regardless of backend service. This article was originally published in audioXpress, January 2018.

German company HEAD acoustics launched VoCAS (Voice Control Analysis System), an efficient software analysis solution for evaluating speech recognition systems. From voice control in vehicles to the use of speech commands for smartphones, tablets or telephone hotlines, VoCAS allows quick and objective quality evaluation, under realistic and repeatable test conditions, of Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) systems, found in an increasing number of applications today.