As voice becomes accepted as the most natural interface for interacting with consumer electronics, smart speakers, not surprisingly were one of the hottest holiday gifts. However as voice moves from a novelty to a standard feature in smart home products devices, manufacturers will need industry grade solutions that can help them integrate voice into their next generation products that will facilitate prototyping, development and speed time to market.
Based on this market need NXP has collaborated with two leaders in the voice audio market, Creoir and Synaptics to create the Creoir Far Field Voice Solution. The solution is based on NXP i.MX applications processors and Synaptics AudioSmart® voice DSP and designed by Creoir for professional applications and high performance connected devices.
Creoir Far-Field Voice Solution in Enclosure
The fast and flexible solution supports major AI platforms such as Alexa Voice Services (AVS) and IBM Watson. The design with System-on-Module (SOM) approach allows fast prototyping and straightforward product development of professional applications such as industrial control, automotive infotainment, advanced HMI, building automation and high performance connected audio devices.
NXP’s i.MX applications processors offer the scalability to meet the requirements that are unique to each customer design. The applications processor portfolio ranges from the i.MX 6 series for general purpose applications and i.MX 7 series for low power applications to the new advanced i.MX 8 series which allow for rich interactive high performance multimedia and audio experiences. Furthermore, NXP’s Product Longevity program ensures a stable supply of participating components minimum of 10 years from product launch.
Synaptics’ AudioSmart® Voice DSP guarantees superb far-field performance, enabling seamless hands-free voice control of devices from any direction even while music is playing. The advanced voice processing algorithms include Smart Source Pickup (SSP) noise suppression and full-duplex stereo Acoustics Echo Cancellation (AEC). Due to Synaptics’ multiple platforms, the Creoir Far-Field Solution can be configured to support either 2- or 4-microphone arrays depending on the application.
The solution comes with Yocto Linux SW image with AVS client and Android companion app enabling out-of-the-box prototyping for Alexa-enabled applications. In addition, Creoir offers professional engineering services for system integration and product development of voice-enabled products and applications.
The solution will be on display at the NXP booth at CES. Please visit us to see how we can speed integration of voice into your next product design.
Robert Thompson is Global Director i.MX Ecosystem. He focuses on developing the ecosystem to enable customers to get to market as fast and competitively as possible. Robert is an industry expert in consumer electronics with over 20 years of experience in diverse regions, including Europe, Brazil and the US.
