While Amazon, Google, and even Apple are for vying the smart speaker throne, Qualcomm’s introduced a new platform to accelerate the development of smarter speakers.
Attendees at the company’s voice and music develop conference in Shenzhen, China got a first-hand look at a new Qualcomm development: a smart audio platform to “help manufacturers accelerate the development and commercialization of smart and networked speakers.”
In terms of pure software, Qualcomm’s Smart Audio Platform (SAP) comes with all of the features one would expect from a smart speaker set-up: multi-mic far-field voice capabilities, echo-cancellation, noise suppression for especially loud or busy environments, and even beamforming.
Beamforming allows devices to pinpoint specific signals and propagating waves — like Wi-Fi, or more relevantly audio waves.
The SAP supports virtual assistants, like Amazon’s Alexa and the Google Assistant — both of which will be integrated into Qualcomm’s platform later this year.
The SAP allows device manufacturers to focus on building compatible hardware, rather than worrying about creating original software from the ground up.
It’s important to temper expectations, however, as the SAP isn’t a full-fledged device quite yet. Instead, like some of Qualcomm’s other contributions, the SAP is designed to be integrated into more complicated hardware.
The SAP allows device manufacturers to focus on building compatible hardware, rather than worrying about creating original software from the ground up.
In fact, the SAP even integrates Qualcomm’s AllPlay platform, meaning that multi-room audio streaming is also possible.
“This platform is ideal for traditional speaker manufacturers wanting to make the move to a connected platform, as it is designed to bring together all the necessary hardware, software, and tools needed to reduce development time,” said Anthony Murray, senior vice president and general manager of voice and music for Qualcomm, in a media release.
A number of audio hardware manufacturers have already announced plans to integrate Qualcomm’s SAP, including Panasonic, Hitachi and House of Marley.
Source: Qualcomm
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