Siri? Alexa? Google? ANDR ?
By whatever name, the Internet of Things (IoT)* is here to stay, and noise-cancelling, hands-free, voice-operated technologies are a vital and integral feature. According to Wikipedia, “Experts estimate that the IoT will consist of almost 50 billion objects by 2020.”
Although some cite the early 1980s as the beginnings of the IoT, it has existed in science fiction for much longer. In fact, voice-controlled computers have existed in fiction for at least 70 years. The iconic command: “Tea. Earl Grey. Hot.” is familiar to Star Trek fans. Step-by-step, we are nearing the power of ubiquitous, voice-operated, computer connectivity. According to frog design, an extraordinarily innovative company:
“The future of the computer is to essentially make it disappear, so it is part of the environment—
a disconnected interface, so the house or the office or the building or the city is the computer.”
They have created a room that can be controlled by gestures and voice commands.
Putting voice-operated IoT into the hands - or voices! - of consumers, the Amazon Echo, along with the Alexa Fund, is frequently in the news these days. Asking Siri for directions or waking a phone with the words, “OK Google” are part of the everyday experience and put IoT in the hands of mobile users. Innovative individuals are also experimenting with IoT: for a DIY car PC project, Avatar-X used an Andrea Electronics USB-SA Array Microphone with its USB digital audio adapter for its excellent speech recognition capabilities, providing advanced noise cancellation in high-noise environments. As Avatar-X states,
“Touchscreens are great. . . But they still involve taking your eyes off the road, and that's never a good idea, not if you can avoid it. I decided the final step to making my Car PC project a success would be to add voice control.”
Voice-operated IoT applications require advanced audio input technology, in particular speech recognition microphones and noise reduction software. Andrea Electronics’ patented digital, beam forming and noise cancellation signal processing enables accurate far-field speech recognition performance from up to 14 feet away. IoT and Andrea Electronics are a perfect match.
The DA-250 digital noise cancelling DSP module is one of the latest innovations from Andrea Electronics. IoT market applications for the DA-250 digital noise canceling processor include: hands-free communications for consumer use, trucking, and police cruiser applications among others.
How will you use the IoT and Andrea Electronics technology?
*Wikipedia defines the Internet of Things as: “the network of physical objects or "things" embedded with electronics, software, sensors, and network connectivity, which enables these objects to collect and exchange data.”?
