Audience enhances mobile audio with A1028 chip

Audience has debuted a next-gen chip that significantly enhances smartphone speech recognition and audio quality in noisy environments.

“The A1028 processor operates by accurately replicating the functions of human hearing to enhance sound quality and suppress noise,” an Audience spokesperson told TG Daily during a phone interview.

“It is specifically engineered to imitate the complex processing that occurs from the inner ear to the brain.

“As such, EarSmart manages to distinguish and interpret sounds as people do naturally and intuitively – by isolating and enhancing the primary voice signal and filtering out unwanted background noise.”

According to the spokesperson, the A1028 chip can be used to suppress noise interference for a number of speech-sensitive applications, including voice searches, speech-to-text, voice commands, voice dialing and real-time navigation.

“[Most importantly], the A1028 offers processing capabilities to deliver call clarity by providing non-stationary noise suppression to block ambient sounds when in speakerphone mode. 



“[This means] mobile users can now use handheld speakerphone capabilities [without audio degradation] for video calling, voice memos and phone conversations,” the spokesperson added.

Handsets equipped with Audience’s A1028 voice processor are slated to launch during the first half of 2011.

However, an earlier iteration of the chip (1026) is already deployed in a number of current-gen smartphones, including the Google Nexus One, Samsung Captivate and HTC Surround.