All items tagged with smart home (222)
Silicon Labs Completes Acquisition of Sigma Designs' Z-Wave Business
April 23, 2018 by audioXpress Staff

Silicon Labs Completes Acquisition of Sigma Designs' Z-Wave Business

Silicon Labs and Sigma Designs announced the completion of Silicon Labs' acquisition of Sigma Designs' Z-Wave business, including a team of approximately 100 employees, for $240 million in an all-cash transaction. Z-Wave is a leading mesh networking technology for the smart home. More than 2,400 certified, interoperable Z-Wave devices are available from the thriving Z-Wave Alliance of more than 700 manufacturers and service providers worldwide.
Read more...
CEVA Expands TeakLite Family Audio Applications with Maxim's Dynamic Speaker Management and Nuance Voice Activation Technologies
March 7, 2018 by Joao Martins

CEVA Expands TeakLite Family Audio Applications with Maxim's Dynamic Speaker Management and Nuance Voice Activation Technologies

During Mobile World Congress 2018, CEVA announced the availability of Dynamic Speaker Management (DSM) software from Maxim Integrated Products for its CEVA-TeakLite-4 family of ultra-low power audio/voice DSPs, allowing for much louder and richer sound on smartphones, wearables and headsets. CEVA also confirmed that Nuance Voice Activation technology is now available for the CEVA-TeakLite family of DSPs, offering improved performance and power efficiency for mobile devices and smart home applications.
Read more...
STMicroelectronics Introduces Next-Generation Wireless Platform for Higher-Performing Bluetooth Devices
February 23, 2018 by Joao Martins

STMicroelectronics Introduces Next-Generation Wireless Platform for Higher-Performing Bluetooth Devices

Powering the next generation of smart connected objects like digital-home products and wearable electronics, STMicroelectronics has revealed an advanced dual-processor wireless chip that supports new features and enhanced performance with extended battery life. The fusion of 32-bit ultra-low-power microcontroller and highly integrated Bluetooth 5 (BLE) and IEEE 802.15.4 radio creates a high-performing wireless platform for feature-rich smart connected objects.
Read 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.
Read more...
Efficient Linux Designs with Microchip Microprocessor-Based System on Module (SOM) featuring SAMA5D2 MPU
February 21, 2018 by audioXpress Staff

Efficient Linux Designs with Microchip Microprocessor-Based System on Module (SOM) featuring SAMA5D2 MPU

Microchip Technology has unveiled a new System on Module (SOM) featuring the SAMA5D2 MPU. The ATSAMA5D27-SOM1 contains the recently released ATSAMA5D27C-D1G-CU System in Package (SiP). The SOM simplifies IoT design by integrating the power management, non-volatile boot memory, Ethernet PHY and high-speed DDR2 memory onto a small, single-sided Printed Circuit Board (PCB).
Read more...
Qorvo and HUMAX Provide Complete Zigbee-based Smart Home Voice Assistant System
December 29, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

Qorvo and HUMAX Provide Complete Zigbee-based Smart Home Voice Assistant System

RF solutions specialist Qorvo announced that its multi-stack, multi-protocol GP712 System-on-Chip was implemented in the new Zigbee-based HUMAX Chorus Voice Assistant. The pairing allows creating a turnkey ultra-compatible smart home system for IoT operators that integrates gateways, sensor devices, cloud platforms and mobile applications. The new Qorvo/HUMAX voice solution will be showcased during CES 2018, in Las Vegas, Nevada.
Read more...
XMOS Extends Portfolio of Far-Field Voice Capture Solutions with New xCORE VocalFusion Speaker Linear Evaluation Kit
November 30, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

XMOS Extends Portfolio of Far-Field Voice Capture Solutions with New xCORE VocalFusion Speaker Linear Evaluation Kit

XMOS announced commercial availability of the xCORE VocalFusion Speaker Linear evaluation kit as part of its range of innovative far-field voice capture solutions. Based on the XMOS VocalFusion XVF3100 voice processor, the kit is designed for developers, OEMs and ODMs integrating voice user interfaces into flat, or linear consumer electronics typically found at the “edge of the room”, such as smart home control panels and washing machines.
Read more...
Teenage Engineering, Raven and Baidu's Collaboration on New Smart Speaker Concepts
November 20, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

Teenage Engineering, Raven and Baidu's Collaboration on New Smart Speaker Concepts

Baidu, a company known as China's search engine is investing heavily in its own voice engine, artificial intelligence (AI), and even hardware technologies, following Google's footsteps. Earlier this year, Baidu acquired Raven, a Beijing-based smart home startup, and the first results of that investment have now been revealed with two voice-activated speakers that run on the company's own AI platform. The design was the result of a cooperation with a Swedish start-up, Teenage Engineering.
Read more...
Amazon Introduces Alexa, Alexa Skills Kit and Alexa Voice Service to Canada
November 15, 2017 by audioXpress Staff

Amazon Introduces Alexa, Alexa Skills Kit and Alexa Voice Service to Canada

Amazon announced that Alexa, the voice recognition engine that powers the Amazon Echo range of smart speakers, is now available for Canada, along with three Alexa-enabled devices: Echo, Echo Plus, and Echo Dot. The expansion also means that the Alexa Skills Kit (ASK) and the Alexa Voice Service (AVS), enabling developers to build voice experiences for Alexa users will now be available for English speakers in Canada.
Read more...
Change and Opportunities in the Audio Landscape
November 10, 2017 by Joao Martins

Change and Opportunities in the Audio Landscape

On November 9, 2017, I attended the Futuresource Audio Collaborative 2017 conference, at the Ham Yard Hotel in London. With the topic "A Change is Gonna Come," the conference was a valuable and insightful event. To entice our readers to actually spend the hours listening to those interventions (and for those that don't have the time to do it), I will share some of the key highlights, adding some personal takes on the topics addressed.
Read more...