Conexant and Sensory Partner to Offer Standalone Audio Subsystem for Voice Trigger and Far-Field Voice Input Processing

LAS VEGAS--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Conexant Systems Inc. and Sensory today announced their partnership for a multi-phase integration of Sensory’s TrulyHandsfree Voice Control software with Conexant’s leading Far-Field Voice Input Processor SoC. Sensory’s award-winning TrulyHandsfree Voice Control is a robust Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) engine that is uniquely designed to operate with low MIPs and memory consumption. It is already recognized in the mobile industry as the most accurate speech activation in low-power operation. Conexant, the pioneer of Far-Field Voice Input Processor technology, and Sensory are working together to bring Voice Trigger functionality to the fast-growing Smart TV market. Conexant and Sensory will be demonstrating the Voice Trigger running on Conexant’s CX20865 EVK this week at CES 2013, taking place in Las Vegas from January 8-11.

“Sensory is proud to be working with Conexant to bring TrulyHandsfree Voice Control to Conexant's CX20865 chip for the Smart TV market”

Sensory’s TrulyHandsfree Voice Control, supported in over 40 countries/languages, is comprised of a suite of advanced ASR features, including Voice Trigger for speech activation (eliminating the button press on the remote), Voice Commands for simple command and control functions, Speaker Verification for user identification, and User Defined Triggers for creating custom trigger words.

Conexant’s CX20865 Far-Field Voice Input Processor is a highly-integrated SoC with a powerful dual-core 32bit DSP and high-performance 24bit ADCs. Combined with Conexant’s highly adaptive voice preprocessing algorithms, including Stereo Acoustic Echo Cancellation, De-reverberation, Noise Reduction, and Selective Source Pickup^TM, the solution delivers distortion-free, echo-free voice signals to VoIP apps and Local/Cloud-based speech recognition engines. Leading Smart TV OEMs have chosen Conexant’s Far-Field Voice technology to address the harsh environmental and system conditions that exist for Skype TV and voice control in the living room.

The partnership will go beyond the simple porting of Sensory’s software module to the Conexant DSP hardware. Seamless integration and deep optimization in the perspective preprocessing and ASR engines will guarantee the best hit-rate performance, an intuitive user experience and the lowest system power consumption. The implementation will be done in phases driven by key Smart TV OEM opportunities.

“Sensory is proud to be working with Conexant to bring TrulyHandsfree Voice Control to Conexant's CX20865 chip for the Smart TV market,” stated Todd Mozer, Sensory's president, CEO and chairman.

“Conexant’s industry-leading Far-Field Voice Input Processor technology combined with Sensory’s TrulyHandsfree Voice Control and speech-recognition capabilities delivers a truly world-class voice control experience that our blue-chip customer base has come to expect from us,” stated Sailesh Chittipeddi, Ph.D., Conexant president and chief executive officer.

About Sensory, Inc.

Sensory, Inc. is the leader in speech technologies for consumer products, offering a complete line of IC and software-only solutions for speech recognition, speech synthesis, speaker verification, music synthesis and more. Sensory's products are widely deployed in consumer electronic applications including Smart Phones, Automotive, Bluetooth™ products, and various home electronics. Sensory's customers represent the leaders in consumer electronics, including such companies as AT&T, BlueAnt Wireless, Plantronics, Hasbro, JVC, Kenwood, Mattel, Mitsubishi, Toshiba, Uniden, VTech, Samsung and Sony.

About Conexant

Conexant’s comprehensive portfolio of innovative semiconductor solutions includes products for imaging, audio, embedded modem, and video surveillance applications. Conexant is a fabless semiconductor company headquartered in Newport Beach, Calif. To learn more, please visit www.conexant.com.