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Breakthrough innovation specialists Cambridge Consultants today reveal “Ecoutez”, the world’s lowest power, flexible IP block for accelerating Voice Activity Detection (VAD) processing. Alexa™ and Google Home™ are blazing a trail for ‘always-on’ functionality, but attention now turns to the energy consumption of such devices. Massive power efficiency will be vital if voice detection is to make the leap to battery-powered devices. The Ecoutez VAD design requires a tiny 11µW (microwatts) to perform accurate classification of audio signals. This is about 100th of the power consumed by modern hearing aids. As a result, the Ecoutez design will be a critical enabler for applications where the VAD is always on, opening the door to future innovation in voice recognition technologies.
Voice activity detectors sense if someone is talking and are an integral part of many audio processing applications – from speech recognition in smart assistants to VoIP communication. They differentiate between speech and non-speech audio, in order to trigger the application’s function. For battery-powered devices in particular, the amount of power that VAD requires can significantly impact the size of the device.
“Lowering the power requirements for voice detection will be a key breakthrough that transforms and accelerates the voice technology market,” said Jez Stark, Head of Semiconductor Services. “The growing adoption of voice-based personal assistants such as Alexa™ and Google Home™ are driving the requirement for always-on functionality. At the same time, technology companies are continuing to push boundaries, exploring ways to put voice interfaces into ever smaller devices, such as smart hearables and hearing aids. These dual movements are creating demand for ultra-efficient and ultra-low-power VAD.”
Ecoutez requires just 11µW in 0.2mm2 on a 40nm process. By designing a flexible IP block specifically for VAD applications, Cambridge Consultants is enabling a low power VAD that retains high performance and flexibility. Using the company’s patented Sapphyre™ design flow for custom cores and accelerators, Ecoutez supports low power speech detection while maintaining a flexible architecture. This allows enhancements to the algorithms it runs without requiring a new spin of silicon and without compromising performance or efficiency. The design can also be extended to support keyword detection algorithms.
Sapphyre™ technology applies software principles to the design of custom silicon, enabling fast prototyping, optimization, regression testing and efficient debugging, all of which are essential for minimizing development costs and improving performance.
“While a typical design cycle for a silicon IP accelerator of this complexity would be around 12 months, our Sapphyre™ approach allowed for Ecoutez to be completed in less than 12 weeks,” said Robert Tan, Associate Director. “With this capability, we see opportunities for even further reductions in power consumption, including for a whole variety of customized IP blocks not limited to audio processing.”
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About Cambridge Consultants and Capgemini
About Cambridge Consultants
As the deep tech powerhouse of Capgemini, Cambridge Consultants (CC), is a global team of 800 bright, talented people. We are united by the ambition to turn brilliant ideas into technologies, products and services that have never been seen before. And which will transform business, society and the planet. Deep tech is a mindset; a bold strategy that harnesses radical science and engineering to achieve things no-one else can. It enables our clients to gain unassailable commercial advantage from defendable technology that they own. We are trusted by some of the world’s biggest brands and most ambitious start-ups to realise their critical technology-based aspirations – and we’ve been doing it for 60 years. Cambridge Consultants is part of Capgemini Invent.
About Capgemini
Capgemini is a global business and technology transformation partner, helping organisations to accelerate their dual transition to a digital and sustainable world, while creating tangible impact for enterprises and society. It is a responsible and diverse group of 340,000 team members in more than 50 countries. With its strong over 55-year heritage, Capgemini is trusted by its clients to unlock the value of technology to address the entire breadth of their business needs. It delivers end-to-end services and solutions leveraging strengths from strategy and design to engineering, all fueled by its market leading capabilities in AI, cloud and data, combined with its deep industry expertise and partner ecosystem. The Group reported 2023 global revenues of €22.5 billion
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