[ad_1]
A new plug-and-play chip to give Amazon's talent to anything with a speaker could also help cut the cord to new smart speakers. Currently, Amazon offers only one fully wireless Alexa speaker, the Amazon Tap. All other Echo loudspeakers need to be perpetually connected to power.
Third-party battery accessories appeared to temporarily cut this cord. The Vaux Ninety7, for example, packs a battery and a larger speaker into a cylindrical docking station for the Echo Dot, making the smart speaker portable. However, most have limited autonomy: Vaux claims six hours, for example.
This is because most of Amazon's Echo line was not designed with power frugality in mind, since they were still meant to be plugged in. DSP Group wants to change that of architecture. He worked with Amazon on a new chipset, the 3-Mic HDClear development kit for Amazon AVS, which should be much more frugal.
Indeed, according to the company, even with always-listen the word of Eve Alexa All of the usual features of Alexa would be supported, such as tracking voice commands even when music and music are being played. other sounds are played, acoustic echo cancellation and beam formation and microphone enhancement in far field.
DSP suggests that it leaves the new chipset ideal for the smallest and most limited gadgets in power. Think of smartwatches and other wearables, or connected devices at home and at IoT like smart thermostats.
However, what helps to differentiate the chipset, it is not only its energy consumption, it is the ease with which it announces itself. Indeed, DSP Group says that it could be as simple to implement as connecting the tiny card to a speaker and power supply. Baked in is a DMBD5 audio processor from the company, connected to a Raspberry Pi and a network of three microphones.
"We envision a future where customers will interact with Alexa anywhere and from any device," said Priya Abani, director of Alexa Voice Service at Amazon, about the new chipset. The DSP launches the DBMD5 as a standalone means for any device equipped with a microphone to gain Alexa support, but this new development kit goes even further, missing only the speakerphone.
Meanwhile, Amazon is supposed to work on its own Alexa chips. The retailer is said to be brewing hardware that would support offline access to his voice-controlled assistant, an AI coprocessor that would allow faster responses and would select functionality even if there had been no internet connection at this time.
The DSP Group Development Kit is available on order now for $ 249. The price for the DBMD5 alone, meanwhile, remains to be confirmed.
Source link
