Dec 6 2012
Audience®, Inc., the leader in advanced voice and audio processing for mobile devices, today announced that the Audience earSmart eS305 processor was selected by BBK for the new vivo X1 smartphone.
The vivo X1 is the world's thinnest smartphone at only 6.55 mm and offers a groundbreaking voice experience by leveraging Audience earSmart technology to increase the accuracy of mobile speech recognition with Audience's Automatic Speech Recognition (ASR) Assist technology. As the use of voice interface for hands-free operation of mobile phones becomes increasingly important, the dependability of cloud or device speech recognition is becoming a key differentiator for the leading edge of the smartphone market.
"BBK has a technical powerhouse in the vivo X1 smartphone. They are delivering an outstanding feature set in an incredibly sleek package while responding to the consumer demand for a superior voice and audio experience," said Andy Keane, vice president of marketing for Audience. "The Audience earSmart advanced voice processor is the key component in delivering that experience. By working with industry innovators like BBK we are creating a far better ASR experience that will be the key to realizing the promise of voice as the user interface of the future."
"BBK chose Audience because we wanted to work with the leader in voice processing technology," said Feng Lei, Director of Marketing for BBK. "Delivering seamless ASR Assist capabilities as part of the best voice experience is a key differentiator for the vivo X1 smartphone. Audience earSmart technology builds on and accelerates the BBK vision of delivering the best smartphone experience to our customers."
ASR Assist is a set of hardware-accelerated algorithms that isolate voice energy to improve the accuracy of speech-enabled applications regardless of surrounding environmental noise. These applications and the ASR engines powering them are impeded by noise sources such as background voices, music, street noise, and more. Without ASR Assist, the result is often a poor user experience where the engine fails to recognize the spoken words and the application fails to complete the assigned task. The BBK vivo X1 uses Audience ASR Assist technology to analyze the primary speaker's voice and surrounding audio environment. The vivo X1 then processes this data for improved application performance, accuracy and task completion -- even in noisy, distracting environments.