Sonos Announces On-Device Sonos Voice Control in English and French

After years of research and development, Sonos has finally announced Sonos Voice Control, its entirely new voice experience that delivers fast, accurate hands-free control of music and any Sonos multiroom system with unmatched privacy. Aware of the growing concerns about digital assistants from the major technology companies, Sonos introduced its first voice experience created purely for complete command of a Sonos system using only voice. A development effort boosted with the strategic acquisition of Snips in 2019.

NXP Semiconductors announced availability of its voice solution, SLN-LOCAL-IOT, a fully integrated development platform for offline voice control. The solution consists of a full hardware module design and associated software required to implement far-field voice control with a customizable wake word and local commands. NXP also announced market availability of the i.MX RT600 crossover microcontroller (MCU) family, ideal for ultra-low power audio and voice applications.

Original equipment manufacturers (OEM) interested in implementing voice control in their new products without depending on Alexa or Google Assistant should visit Snips at CES 2019. Snips.ai is a French company that provides embedded voice assistants and interfaces for connected devices that run locally and offline. This year the company won a CES 2019 Best of Innovation Awards in the Embedded Technology category and will be demonstrating its technology at CES in the Eureka Park.