The explosive growth in the voice control market has been led by smart speakers, that many of us now have multiple examples of in our homes. However this growth in voice control is now expected to quickly expand to sounds bars, appliances and almost any device In your home.
To support this growth of voice control into many new device categories NXP® Semiconductor today announced the NXP i.MX 8M Development Kit for Amazon Alexa Voice Service (AVS). The development kit includes a series of standout features for customers:
The kit is based on NXP’s i.MX 8M applications processors featuring Arm® Cortex®-A53 and Cortex-M4 cores. The i.MX 8M provides optimized audio, voice and video processing for applications that scale from consumer home audio to industrial building automation. To ensure the i.MX 8M was delivered on a cost-effective, yet scalable platform, NXP worked with one of our board designers, TechNexion. The i.MX 8M Pico Board consists of a system on module (SOM) and baseboard that is modular in design, easy to develop on and easy to take into production. TechNexion also designed the Audio VOICE HAT, a two-microphone expansion board that plugs directly into the i.MX 8M Pico Board. This hardware combination enables fast prototyping on a small form-factor kit enabling a faster and more cost-effective path to production.
i.MX 8M Development Kit for Amazon Alexa
To empower our customers to deliver a high-quality audio experience, we have partnered with DSP Concepts to enable audio algorithms such as echo cancellation, beam-forming and noise reduction to be delivered in software. These features result in a single-chip solution that not only lowers overall design cost, but also ensures that developers have the support and expertise needed to create products capable of high-quality user experience within a short development time.
The DSP Concepts audio library is integrated into NXP’s Linux® Yocto distribution along with the AVS Device SDK and Alexa Wake Word Engine. These key software components are provided in an image preloaded on the development kit or installed at run time. Users can also choose to enable Alexa Multi-Room Music (MRM), an extraordinary new feature. With MRM, manufacturers can offer their users the experience of targeting a specific device or creating multi-brand speaker groups for synchronized music playback.
As a wide variety of companies look to add voice to their next generation products NXP and its partners are focused on delivering the latest innovative audio features on production ready, cost effective hardware. This enables companies to turn the potential of voice into competitive products in a fast time to market.
For more details on the development kit and where to purchase it, please go to: Far Field Voice Services
For more innovation about the latest innovations from Alexa Voice Service please go to: “Alexa, Play Rolling in the Deep Everywhere.” Announcing Multi-Room Music for Products with Alexa Built-in
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.
