QNX Has Announced Improvements On Its "In-Car Hands-Free System"

SDesigned to help hands-free and speech recognition systems deliver the highest quality user experience, QNX® Acoustics for Voice 3.0 offers advancements in echo cancellation, noise reduction, adaptive equalization, automatic gain control, and other features for narrowband and wideband speech processing. It also supports Wideband Plus speech processing to satisfy the demanding voice-quality requirements of the latest smartphone connectivity protocols for telephony, VoIP services, and speech recognition. QNX Acoustics for Voice 3.0 is based on QNX acoustics technology that has been road-proven in more than 20 million vehicles.

"Cars are inherently noisy, and noise is the mortal enemy of any hands-free or speech recognition system, whether that system is built into the car or brought in through a smartphone," said Grant Courville, director of product management, QNX Software Systems. "QNX Acoustics for Voice is specifically designed to filter out noise from tires, roads, fans, and vents, enabling clear, crisp speech voice communications that can lighten the cognitive load on the driver and reduce distraction."

Highly modular, QNX Acoustics for Voice 3.0 supports many advanced features, including: High efficiency speech processing — Advanced algorithms use fewer hardware CPU cycles when processing wideband and Wideband Plus speech, freeing up CPU headroom for other acoustic or infotainment applications.

Diagnostic tools — To help speed time-to-market, the solution includes an extensive diagnostic toolset to facilitate parameter tuning. QNX Software Systems can also provide onsite experts to further help customers tune their in-car solutions.

Automotive-grade echo cancellation and noise reduction (AEC/NR) — For building full-duplex hands-free and speech recognition systems.

Design flexibility for targeting multiple vehicle lines — The solution can work with a variety of speech recognizers, whether they are running in the cloud and accessed through a smartphone, or embedded in the car. It can also run on a variety of operating systems, processors, and DSPs, enabling customers to migrate features across vehicle lines.

Choice of development libraries — The standard library supports both narrow and wideband speech, at 8 kHz and 16 kHz sample rates, respectively. The premium library supports these bandwidths and it also supports Wideband Plus, with its wider range of audio frequencies, at a 24 kHz sample rate, enabling customers to address the voice processing requirements of the latest smartphone connectivity protocols for the car.

Compliance with industry standards — Complies with Verband der Automobilindustrie (VDA) ITU-T P.1100 and ITU-T P.1110 specifications for hands-free systems.

Availability QNX Acoustics for Voice 3.0 is scheduled for release in Q3 2014.