BdSound originally pioneered acoustic echo cancelation, noise reduction, and speech enhancement technologies for videoconference, mobile phones and professional intercom systems, allowing it to gradually expand its own set of audio processing tools. But it was with its entry in the automotive market that BdSound gained global recognition, leveraging on its experience in other application areas to improve voice recognition features inside the car. The company was the first Apple Carplay certified ECNR (Echo Cancellation and Noise Reduction) vendor in the world.
Described as a new benchmark for in-car voice experience, the new Microphone Bubbles technology builds and expands upon the company's highly advanced AI and processing tools in the Simply Sounds Clear suite, carefully designed and harmonized to provide car passengers with the best voice experience ever. For this development, BdSound challenged its own leadership position in the automotive audio field by proposing a completely new integrated approach. The Microphone Bubbles technology creates a virtual bubble around each car seat to capture only the voice of the respective passenger. This enables unmistakable communication for hands-free calls and interactions with voice assistants even in the noisiest cars and with multiple passengers all talking at the same time.
And according to BdSound, achieving this level of performance is now possible with just a single omnidirectional microphone per seat. The company reports a Word Error Rate improvement in voice recognition up to 54% in the most challenging scenarios, with multiple interactions simultaneously. And the implementation even allows personalized experiences for each passenger, and managing multiple Voice Assistant engines with a dedicated arbitration module.
By isolating passengers' voices from the car's acoustic environment, conversations and interactions with voice assistants become effective and effortless, regardless of ambient noise levels. The car is now able to detect the seat from which the voice commands originate so that it can respond accordingly. Passengers can issue specific commands directly to their seats without the risk of voice assistant misunderstandings, even during multiple simultaneous interactions.
"Our goal was to surpass our own standards and develop a solution that redefines the in-car voice user experience. We are confident that we have set a new benchmark in the automotive audio industry," says Antonio Grosso, CEO of BdSound.
"The Microphone Bubbles feature is the result of a journey filled with challenges and years of dedicated research," explains Francesco Zocchi, Lead of the Automotive Business Unit at BdSound. "Our 14 years of experience in speech processing, combined with the integration of the latest advancements in Machine Learning, enabled us to achieve this outstanding performance while maintaining a basic microphone setup."
BdSound, headquartered in Assago, Italy, and bolstered by a subsidiary office in Shanghai, China, is trusted by several Tier-1 companies. For car manufacturers, the Microphone Bubbles solution improves passenger comfort, creating independent acoustic zones, even allowing every passenger to enjoy their individual multimedia experiences without disturbing others.
www.bdsound.com
