Ambiq Micro, DSP Concepts and Sensory Join Forces to Bring Always-On Voice Control to Portable, Battery-Operated Devices

AUSTIN, Texas, Jan. 3, 2018 /PRNewswire/ -- Ambiq Micro, the pioneer in ultra-low power solutions, today announced a partnership with DSP Concepts Inc., a global developer of embedded digital signal processing audio solutions and specialist in voice UI technologies, and Sensory Inc., the leading provider of embedded artificial intelligence (AI) and speech recognition technologies. Together, the three companies are demonstrating a new level of energy efficiency in always-on keyword detect and on-device command phrase recognition for portable consumer products including smartwatches, earbuds, smart home end devices, health monitors, and wearables.

Voice control is radically transforming the way consumers interact with their electronic devices, whether at home, at work, or on-the-go. Until the development of Sensory's TrulyHandsfree and DSP Concepts Audio Weaver Voice UI, it has been very difficult to add highly accurate, always-listening voice control to battery-powered devices without sacrificing the user experience or battery life. The Apollo family of microcontrollers built on Ambiq Micro's patented Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT™) further enhances the power efficiency of TrulyHandsfree and Audio Weaver UI while still providing ideal always-listening wake word and voice control performance for today's ultra-low-power devices.

By combining Sensory's Low Power Sound Detector (LPSD) and TrulyHandsfree wake word and command phrase detection with DSP Concept's quiescent sound detection, beamforming, and noise reduction, Ambiq Micro's Apollo2 microcontroller is able to ach­­­ieve highly accurate key phrase detection rates while consuming 4x lower power consumption compared to existing solutions. This power and performance efficiency enables high-quality, multi-microphone beam forming and noise reduction algorithms to run for more than a week using a CR2032 battery.

"We're thrilled to partner with industry leaders DSP Concepts and Sensory to enable energy-efficient, high-quality and seamless interactions for consumers as they increasingly engage with voice-operated appliances," said Aaron Grassian, Vice President of Marketing and Business Development at Ambiq Micro. "More and more innovative products are embracing voice-enabled user interfaces and, together, we're delivering the ultra-low power capabilities to bring true always-listening and always-on voice control to battery-powered intelligent devices."

"Ambiq Micro's SPOT-enabled devices have given us a platform to showcase the quality of our Audio Weaver Voice UI to focus on the user's commands at ultra-low power levels," said Dr. Paul Beckmann, Founder and CTO of DSP Concepts, Inc. "The combination of the power efficiency and audio quality of our technologies is the most important factor in driving a frictionless user experience and a new level of adoption in the market."

"TrulyHandsfree was specifically developed to enable highly-accurate and noise robust wake word and voice key phrase recognition on ultra-low-power applications," said Bernie Brafman, VP, business development at Sensory. "As devices continue to get smaller, so will the batteries within them. We are pleased to team up with Ambiq and DSP Concepts to provide a solution that will enable more companies to add TrulyHandsfree always-listening voice capabilities to their power-constrained applications."

Ambiq will be demonstrating SPOT™-enabled ultra-low power voice control solutions at the Consumer Electronics Show 2018 (CES) on Tuesday, January 9, through Friday, January 12, at the Renaissance Hotel Las Vegas, Suite 532.  For an appointment, please contact [email protected].

About Ambiq Micro
Ambiq Micro was founded in 2010 on the simple yet powerful notion that extremely low-power semiconductors are the key to the future of electronics. Through the use of pioneering ultralow-power technology, innovative companies around the world are developing differentiated solutions that reduce or eliminate the need for batteries, reduce overall system power and maximize industrial design flexibility. Ambiq Micro has developed breakthrough technology based on its patented Subthreshold Power Optimized Technology (SPOT™) platform that dramatically reduces the amount of power consumed by semiconductors, thus making its integrated circuits (ICs) an ideal solution for energy-critical applications. Ambiq Micro is headquartered in Austin, Texas.  

About DSP Concepts
DSP Concepts, Inc. provides embedded audio digital signal processing solutions delivered through its Audio Weaver® platform. Audio Weaver's versatility and flexibility allow it to achieve superior performance from any combination of components. DSP Concepts specializes in microphone processing as well as playback processing, and is the leading supplier to top tier brands in automotive and consumer products. Founded by Dr. Paul Beckmann in 2003, DSP Concepts is headquartered in Santa Clara, California.   

About Sensory Inc.
Sensory Inc. creates a safer and superior UX through vision and voice technologies. Sensory's technologies are widely deployed in consumer electronics applications, including mobile phones, automotive, wearables, toys, IoT and various home electronics. With its TrulyHandsfree™ voice control, Sensory has set the standard for mobile handset platforms' ultralow-power "always listening" touchless control. To date, Sensory's technologies have shipped in over a billion units of leading consumer products.

SOURCE Ambiq Micro