Conexant Systems, a provider of audio and voice technology solutions designed to create natural user experiences, has announced a collaboration with Amazon to release an Alexa Voice Service (AVS) approved AudioSmart 2-mic Development Kit for smart home applications. The two companies are making the solution available to manufacturers and developers via the Amazon AVS for Raspberry Pi project.
Featuring the Conexant AudioSmart CX20921 high-performance Hands-free Voice Input Processor, and Alexa wake word technology, Conexant’s AudioSmart 2-mic Development Kit for Amazon AVS is designed to allow product developers to more quickly and easily build products with Alexa that offer an ideal voice user experience.
Enabling speech recognition and voice control from a distance requires overcoming the acoustic challenges of echo cancellation, background noise, position of microphones, and speaker placement. This dual-microphone voice processing solution is designed to recognize the Alexa wake word and deliver speech requests for processing from anywhere in the room, even in noisy, real-world conditions. The solution also enables voice barge-in capabilities, allowing users to interrupt their Alexa device when it’s playing sound. The AudioSmart 2-mic Development Kit will save engineering time and reduce costs related to developing noise robust voice-enabled devices.
“We created our AVS for Raspberry Pi project to help expedite the development of Alexa smart home products,” said Steve Rabuchin, VP, Amazon Alexa. “Conexant’s AudioSmart 2-mic Development Kit for Amazon AVS unlocks serious voice capture capabilities, allowing developers to achieve a far better AVS user experience through vital voice processing technologies that overcome acoustic and distance challenges. Utilizing Conexant’s AVS approved solutions will help third-party manufacturers quickly innovate with Alexa.”
The core component of the development kit is Conexant’s AudioSmart CX20921 Voice Input Processor, running its industry-leading hands-free voice pre-processing software technology. The hands-free voice input processor system captures the user’s voice from anywhere within the room, separates the voice commands from music and voice prompts being played out of the device, even with background noise present, and provides a clean audio signal to the AVS cloud for speech recognition processing. This solution ensures that AVS hears only the user’s command, and nothing else, which in turn provides a consistently accurate AVS experience.
“We created our AudioSmart 2-mic Development Kit to provide third-party AVS developers with a high-performance alternative to multi-mic array designs, supporting high-volume consumer price points,” said Saleel Awsare, President, Conexant. “Our AudioSmart 2-mic Development Kit was designed to be easily integrated into any AVS system prototype based on the Raspberry Pi, and we worked closely with Amazon to certify its hands-free voice performance capabilities with AVS.”
Edited by Alicia Young
