Amazon offers its voice-recognition smarts to other companiesApril 14, 2017 - 16:24 AMT PanARMENIAN.Net - Amazon's Alexa has become the flag-bearer for AI assistants. Not only does she possess an exhaustive list of useful skills, but she's also started finding new homes in everything from phones to cars, watches, little robots and even refrigerators. There's a reason Amazon's Echo and Echo Dot speakers are particularly suited for ordering Alexa around at home, though. They both feature a fancy far-field, seven-microphone setup and audio processing smarts that help Alexa understand your muffled commands shouted from the downstairs bathroom. On April 13, Amazon announced it's releasing this mixture of hardware and software in a new development kit, so other companies can build Alexa prisons that recognize you want to add mixed spices to your shopping list, and not listen to a Spice Girls mix, Engadget said. The seven microphones take care of omnidirectional listening, while Amazon's proprietary noise reduction, echo cancellation and wake-word recognition software turns your mumbling into intelligible commands. For reference, Google Home uses just two microphones, while Lenovo's Smart Assistant (with Alexa) features eight. Amazon's development kit isn't available to workshop hobbyists, instead being reserved for "commercial device manufacturers through an exclusive, invite-only program." Still, between this and Intel's smart speaker reference design, companies pretty much have everything they need to quickly develop their own Echo-like hardware and give consumers even more ways to ask Alexa to play that Spice Girls mix already. Top stories Yerevan will host the 2024 edition of the World Congress On Information Technology (WCIT). Rustam Badasyan said due to the lack of such regulation, the state budget is deprived of VAT revenues. Krisp’s smart noise suppression tech silences ambient sounds and isolates your voice for calls. Gurgen Khachatryan claimed that the "illegalities have been taking place in 2020." Partner news Most popular in the section | Scholz hopes Armenia-Azerbaijan peace treaty will be signed this year German Chancellor Olaf Scholz hopes that a peace treaty between Armenia and Azerbaijan will be signed this year. Armenia, Russia discuss life extension of Metsamor nuclear plant Issues regarding the extension of life of the 2nd power unit of the Armenian Nuclear Power Plant were discussed in Yerevan. Armenians stage more campaigns against territorial concessions to Azerbaijan Protesters blocked more roads across Armenia on Friday, April 26 in continuing attempts to scuttle territorial concessions to Azerbaijan. Czech-Armenian military cooperation discussed in Yerevan A delegation led by the Director General for the Industrial Cooperation Division of the Ministry of Defence of the Czech Republic visited Armenia. |