By will-buy
Microcontroller developer Ambiq has launched something new for incorporating voice into Internet-of-Things devices faster. The brand new Voice-on-SPOT (VoS) Kit is aimed at working with some of the bigger names in smart devices to provide voice assistants on devices with a mix of hardware and software elements while using a minimal amount of power.
Ambiq's Voice
The first Ambiq VoS Kit depends on Ambiq's Apollo3 Blue Plus MCU to offer an always-listening application with up to two microphones running wake word detection and signal processing for a voice assistant. The concept would be to build the kit into video game controls, smartwatches, health trackers, controllers, and other battery-operated devices. They'll then have the ability to run voice assistants either directly or included in a larger smart home ecosystem without eating through their batteries immediately by always listening. The VoS Kit may also be rolled into future Ambiq hardware. The Apollo4 Blue VoS Kit is slated to roll out later this year, with two analog microphones as well as an even lower energy cost. That version will offer much more voice capabilities, including telephone calls and translation service.
“Voice is easily the most convenient but least utilized input modality to interact having a product. The mass adoption of artificial intelligence (AI) within our everyday lives has accelerated the shift toward voice applications,” Ambiq director of solutions marketing Marc Miller said in a statement. “Using the Ambiq VoS Kit, manufacturers finally have a complete solution to implement always-on voice command within their IoT devices while achieving up to one-year life of the battery.”
Sound Up
Ambiq cites the growth of the speech recognition and voice market as the reason for investing in the brand new solution. Particularly, the COVID-19 pandemic and subsequent lockdowns accelerated using we've got the technology in both business and personal contexts. Battery-operated devices which are always listening have started to appear more about the market in earbuds and other devices thanks to better batteries and low-power electronics. That’s why the brand new Roku Voice Remote Pro offers hands-free activation by voice along with a rechargeable battery, that's designed to last for 8 weeks when it’s full.
As Ambiq's cool product is built into the back-end of a product, it's already started partnering with other audio tech companies in order to leverage their respective creations for the better. For example, products with Ambiq's tech could also include Audio Weaver, the audio tech platform developer DSP Concepts, in addition to wake words and voice commands designed on Sensory's VoiceHub platform
“Sensory and Ambiq share the same objective of faster time for you to market for always-on voice devices,” Sensory v . p . of promoting Joe Murphy said. “Using Sensory's VoiceHub, developers can easily build custom wake word models and voice control command sets. Taking it a step further, developers can select the Ambiq Apollo output which offers seamless integration with Ambiq's VoS kit.”
