DSP Concepts TalkTo Audio Front End Qualified by Amazon for Alexa Built-In Devices

DSP Concepts announced that TalkTo, its suite of proprietary microphone processing algorithms that use adaptive learning technology to deliver a quiet-room experience in noisy and unpredictable environments, has been qualified by Amazon for Alexa built-in devices using Alexa Voice Service (AVS). This enables more hardware brands to easily build Alexa built-in devices that will perform well even in noisy situations, thanks to TalkTo’s leading sound cancellation technology.

Amazon is not resting on its laurels in voice personal assistants. The company continues to severely undercut Google's ambitions with the Google Home, Assistant and Chromecast products, while jumping ahead to compete head to head with Apple and undermining Apple's plans for Siri and the smart home. The company just announced a completely revamped line of Echo speakers with lower prices and improved everything, as well as new classes of Echo devices.

In previous editorials, I have highlighted the important role of smart speakers in promoting the user case for voice personal assistants (VPAs) and voice recognition applications - given the ideal combination of far-field microphone arrays with a complete audio ecosystem that encompasses digital signal processing, acoustic echo cancelation, noise cancellation, and many other technologies. This opens significant opportunities for the audio industry, given we understand the challenges.