Qualcomm’s audio chips target smart speakers

Qualcomm has long aimed to diversify its business beyond smartphones, and it took a step in that direction Tuesday by unveiling a new series of audio processors designed for smart speakers and the connected home markets.

The San Diego wireless technology firm rolled out the QCS400 — a series of integrated system-ona-chip processors targeting the next generation of smart speakers, soundbars, home assistants and audio visual receivers.

Qualcomm claims its technology delivers higher sound quality, improved voice control via artificial intelligence, lower power consumption and wide-ranging connectivity for smart speaker/ smart home gadget makers.

“We are really driving the future of audio — whole home audio — to be more intelligent, to be more immersive and to be more integrated,” said Gary Brotman, a senior director of product management at Qualcomm, at an event Tuesday.

For Qualcomm, audio technology is part of the larger Internet of Things market — where voice-controlled smart speakers are linked to connected TVs, smart lights and appliances, security systems and other gear. The key feature to the company’s smart speaker chips is an artificial intelligence engine that helps filter out background noise and enable more accurate speech recognition.

For example, smart speakers using the machine learning capabilities could process certain words on the device without linking to the Internet cloud — resulting in faster responses and fewer mistakes.

“This will help manufacturers more easily overcome significant technical challenges and build smarter speakers and assistants with more intuitive voice user interfaces, connected user experiences and exceptional sound quality,” said Rahul Patel, a senior vice president of Qualcomm.