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Smarter Measurements for Smart Speakers

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Author: Daniel Knighten (Listen, Inc) and Glenn Hess (Indy Acoustic Research).  Reprinted from the March 2018 issue of Audio Xpress.

In this article, we describe techniques to characterize the frequency response, output level, and distortion of the device under test to enable direct comparisons between Internet of Things (IoT) smart speakers and conventional speakers.

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Seminar: Smarter Measurements for Smarter Speakers

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Smarter speakers require smarter test methods!

smart_speakersLearn how to test smart speakers, robots, voice-controlled automotive audio and other IoT devices in our practical half-day seminar taught by industry experts Dan Knighten, and Marc Marroquin of Listen, Inc.

Although acoustic testing of smart speakers and other voice-activated devices presents challenges such as injecting and extracting response signals, time delays, and triggering the system using voice commands, it is still possible to measure the same parameters as traditional loudspeakers, In addition we can also measure microphone array performance, speakerphone performance and more.

We demonstrate how to do this, focusing on:

  • Stimulating and capturing responses from a device where you don’t have direct access to the microphone or speaker (open loop testing).
  • Delays, asynchronous stimulus / acquisition, and working with the ‘cloud’
  • Testing with real world signals such as speech and music, and how to analyze results from these test stimuli
  • Voice Recognition – key word spotting, wake word testing, directionality, and the effect of background noise on voice recognition performance
  • Telephony – testing smart speakers for hands-free calling

There is no charge for this one-day seminar and lunch will be provided. Space is limited, so please RSVP today.

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Locations and Dates:

Cupertino (San Jose area): Wednesday February 14th, 2018 – 9.00am – 1.30pm. Hilton Garden Inn, Cupertino. 10741 N Wolfe Rd, Cupertino, CA 95014

Culver City (Los Angeles area): Friday February 16th, 2018 – 9.00am – 1.30pm. DoubleTree by Hilton Hotel Los Angeles – Westside. 6161 W Centinela Ave, Culver City, CA 90230

Agenda (9am-1.30pm)

  • Introduction
  • Open Loop Testing
    • What is ‘open loop’ testing?
    • Can you really measure frequency response and harmonic distortion in an open loop?
    • Using Frequency Shifting to time align asynchronous stimuli and response
    • Working with cloud based services
  • Testing with Real World Signals
    • How to use real voice and / or non test tones to evaluate acoustic performance
    • Analysis techniques used for evaluating non test tone stimuli
  • Voice Recognition
    • Key Word spotting / Wake Up word testing
    • Room effects, environmental distractors, and SNR…how they affect voice recognition performance
    • Measuring directionality
  • Telephony
    • What voice quality metrics are important for speakerphones?
    • Challenges of testing speakerphones in different environments
  • Networking lunch

 

Reserve your space

Challenges of IoT Smart Speaker Testing

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Quantitatively measuring the audio characteristics of IoT (Internet of Things) smart speakers presents several novel challenges. We discuss overcoming the practical challenges of testing such devices and demonstrate how to measure frequency response, distortion, and other common audio characteristics. In order to make these measurements, several measurement techniques and algorithms are presented that allow us to move past the practical difficulties presented by this class of emerging audio devices. We discuss test equipment requirements, selection of test signals and especially overcoming the challenges around injecting and extracting test signals from the device.

Authors: Glenn Hess (Indy Acoustic Research) and Daniel Knighten (Listen, Inc.)
Presented at the 143rd AES Conference, New York 2017

Full Paper