Amazon, Qualcomm partner to put <span style='color:red'>Alexa</span> assistant in more headphones
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Amazon, Qualcomm partner to put Alexa assistant in more headphones

Microchip firm Qualcomm is joining Amazon to spread the use of Amazon's Alexa voice assistant in wireless headphones, the companies said on Monday.Under the deal, Qualcomm will release a set of chips that any maker of Bluetooth headphones can use to embed Alexa directly into the device.When the headphones are paired to a phone with the Alexa app on it, users will be able to talk to the voice assistant by tapping a button on the headphones.The functionality would be similar to Apple's AirPods wireless earbuds, which enable users can tap the devices to talk to Apple's virtual assistant, Siri.Amazon and Alphabet's Google, whose voice assistants have most often been found in their respective smart speakers for the home, are rushing to partner with headphone makers.Models from Bose and Jabra feature Alexa built in, and Sony said earlier this year that a software update will make some of its headphone models work with Alexa. Google Assistant can be used on headphones from Bose, JBL. OnePlus and Sony, along with Google's own Pixel Buds.The Qualcomm partnership could expand that lineup. Qualcomm has developed a pre-made circuit that headphone makers can drop into their device to imbue it with Alexa."This radically reduces their cost and time to market," Anthony Murray, senior vice president and general manager of voice and music for Qualcomm, told Reuters in an interview. "It makes it simple for the industry to adopt this."Murray declined to comment on whether Qualcomm would make a similar offering for Google Assistant but said the chip firm plans to support other partners in the future.The move is part of a broader push by Qualcomm to diversify away from its dependence on processor and modem chips for mobile phones. That business proved lucrative for Qualcomm, but its patent licensing model drew regulatory fines and lawsuits from customers such as Apple.At a conference in Hong Kong slated for early Tuesday local time, Qualcomm also said it is working with action camera maker GoPro to put more Qualcomm chips for image processing in the devices. The firm has said it expects about $5 billion in revenue from non-mobile sources this year, or more than 20% of the $22.4 billion in sales that analysts expect.
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Release time：2018-10-25 00:00 reading：976 Continue reading>>
Qualcomm 4G/5G Summit:Creating headsets with <span style='color:red'>Alexa</span>
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Qualcomm 4G/5G Summit:Creating headsets with Alexa

Qualcomm has announced what it says is the industry’s first qualified, end-to-end, Bluetooth, Smart Headset reference design featuring push-button activation support for Alexa for users of Android phones with the Alexa app.Based on Qualcomm family of Bluetooth audio chips (QCC5100-series), the company says the reference design includes virtually all the key hardware and software required for manufacturers to help them develop advanced Bluetooth headsets more efficiently and cost-effectively. In addition to support for Alexa, the solution also supports ultra-low power consumption for extended playback time and battery life, as well as Qualcomm cVc noise reduction technology designed for superior audio and voice service capabilities. Manufacturers can also add support for active noise cancellation and Qualcomm aptX HD high-resolution wireless audio.The Qualcomm Smart Headset Development Kit is the first Bluetooth Smart Headset reference design built with support for the Alexa Mobile Accessory Kit, a protocol that runs over Bluetooth, and is designed to allow users to easily connect Bluetooth-enabled audio devices with Alexa via the Alexa app. This means device makers no longer need to oversee the bulk of coding for their Alexa integration or to add any communication hardware beyond Bluetooth, which helps to reduce cost and accelerates development time.“Our consumer research shows that four out of five consumers have embraced voice services, but the vast majority are also looking for superb audio quality. The Qualcomm Smart Headset reference design brings this and more together, helping consumers to take advantage of Alexa on-the-go, without the need to interact with their phone,” said Anthony Murray, senior vice president and general manager, voice & music, Qualcomm.The QCC5100-series SoC architecture is designed to deliver low-power consumption and optimised to ensure longer audio playback time for both voice calls and music streaming. A dedicated application processor sub-system, dual DSP architecture and next-generation audio development kit software provide a powerful foundation for the development of highly differentiated audio products. The SoC family is also engineered to support concurrent software operation, meaning that users can transition smoothly between functions such as listening to music, making calls, running biometric sensors and using voice services. Qualcomm cVc noise reduction technology helps to deliver accurate speech recognition even in very challenging acoustic environments, as well as to provide crisp voice communication for both parties in a phone call.The Qualcomm Smart Headset reference design with Alexa is available now. Customers can use the reference design to help them evaluate building Alexa on-the-go experiences and can step up and begin development with a suite of software and tools to customise or develop their own headset products. For more information and to get started building with Qualcomm.
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Release time：2018-10-24 00:00 reading：936 Continue reading>>
Inside Lab126 with Amazon's <span style='color:red'>Alexa</span>
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Inside Lab126 with Amazon's Alexa

　　In a rare move, Amazon escorted a dozen tech journalists into the secretive bowels of Lab126, its client hardware division here. Its aim was to tell the world that it’s ready to let anyone make any kind of Alexa device they can think of — and fast.　　The smart voice interface is arguably Amazon’s first hit in client devices. Its Kindle peaked early with the e-book category as a whole, and it largely struck out with its Fire tablets and smartphones.　　With a big lead over rivals, the promise of Alexa-powered devices is rising. But it’s still an emerging market that’s a long way from Amazon’s home-run vision — becoming the next interface of choice for client devices and end-user queries.　　In the last-generation battle of operating systems, Windows won the PC and Apple and Google tied in smartphones. Amazon is betting that the next battle is the voice user interface and that Alexa will draw the world to its massive data centers. Google,China’s Alibaba and Baidu, and many others are chasing a similar dream.　　Amazon now supports nearly 100 third-party Alexa products from light switches and thermostats to smoke alarms, HP notebooks, and cars. It offers hardware reference designs from 10 semiconductor companies and two of its own design that have sold in thousands since October 2016. Altogether, millions of Alexa systems have shipped across 11 countries.　　“The velocity is really increasing, and we have an amazing pipeline … so many different form factors will be coming out — that’s what’s exciting,” said Pete Thompson, who joined six months ago to lead Amazon Voice Services, the division driving Alexa into partner products. “I’ve been involved with a lot of developer networks, and you never know what you will get.”　　One of the latest is the Eufy Genie, a smart Alexa speaker that can also control home appliances. Thompson proudly reports that it took just seven months from the first meeting with the startup until they shipped a product.　　“In the hardware world, that is extremely quick, and we continue to try to take parts out of the process so we can go faster,” said Thompson, who led work on Microsoft’s touch-based tabletop computer, the original Surface, announced about the same time as the iPhone.　　“Everybody thought you couldn’t design a device that used only a touch interface, but now that’s a natural part of our lives,” he said, suggesting that the next big thing is letting users speak to computers all around them.　　That concept, borrowed from the TV series “Star Trek,” inspired the original Amazon Echo, said an Amazon executive in an interview last month. Indeed, one of the four approved wake words that Amazon allows includes the “Star Trek,” command, “Computer!”　　Amazon believes that it now has a full a la carte menu of cloud APIs, reference designs, developer’s kits, modules, and ODMs. It also provides engineering services to help OEMs select hardware, refine user experiences, and run performance tests.　　Basically, any technology that Amazon’s design team has or is developing for its products will be made available to third parties. Some still require “some packaging,” said Thompson, referring to Alexa calling/texting services and devices with displays.　　Chipmakers powering Alexa reference designs include Cirrus Logic, Intel, Mediatek, NXP, Qualcomm, Synaptics, Texas Instruments, and Xmos. For those who prefer an SoC to an ARM core and separate DSP, Allwinner and Amlogic offer chips and designs.　　They range from designs supporting beam-forming across eight mics listening across a 360-degree range to a single directional mic. Amazon worked with Amlogic to remove GPU and HDMI blocks from an existing design to create an audio-only chip for lower cost.　　Amazon works with transducer companies on producing smaller, better speakers. It also developed techniques for shielding mics from the distractions of a smart speaker playing music.　　“There’s a huge number of products coming with audio and low cost in mind,” said Chris Hagler, director of hardware for Amazon’s core Alexa team, who worked on its first Echo product.　　One thing that none of the designs use so far is any logic dedicated to accelerating machine learning.　　“That’s a good idea,” quipped Hagler, declining to give details of what client AI acceleration Amazon will deliver or when.　　“We are trying to design and seed smaller lower-power and -cost devices, so having accelerators is really important — some are DSPs and may have extra blocks. We want it as low in power as we can get. I can’t get into the architecture, but we do have some ideas for it.”
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Release time：2018-04-23 00:00 reading：964 Continue reading>>

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