Sensory Releases Cloud-Free Voice Control for Bluetooth Speakers – Maintaining User Privacy

Designed to not invade user privacy or record user conversations, Sensory’s VoiceGenie Smart Speaker reference design is a low-cost solution for enabling voice-powered music control on Bluetooth speakers

Sensory, a Silicon Valley-based company focused on improving the user experience and security of consumer electronics through state-of-the-art embedded AI technologies, announces a new solution that will allow Bluetooth speaker manufacturers to create exciting new products that feature voice-activated control of music with branded wake words, without needing any special apps or a Wi-Fi connection.

“When I watch how my family uses our Amazon Echo, my kids just stream from their phones and use it more like a Bluetooth speaker, with occasional voice commands to play or stop. They don’t use a lot of complex requests because they always have their phone with them and most of the music controls are from their phone,” said Todd Mozer, CEO at Sensory.

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Today’s smart speakers with voice assistants like Alexa, Google, and Siri give users an all or nothing choice between control (mic on) or privacy (mic off) – there is no in-between. Sensory’s VoiceGenie Smart Speaker reference design enables an in-between option for simple hands-free voice controls, but all done on device with nothing sent to the cloud. This means users’ private data won’t be stored somewhere that it can be accessed or sold. It also means conversations can’t be accidentally recorded and sent out. As an added bonus to consumer electronics manufacturers, Sensory can create custom branded wake words that support the speaker OEM’s own brand rather than the wake word from a third-party voice assistant that is often a competitor.

“Many consumer electronics OEMs want to get into the fast-growing market for smart speakers, but they don’t want to use another brand’s wake word or risk their customers’ privacy and personal data to do so. Sensory now has an affordable solution that offers these companies access to a user-friendly voice UX for Bluetooth speakers that maintains their brand’s integrity and doesn’t require access to cloud-based AI processing,” Mozer continued.

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Sensory’s new VoiceGenie Smart Speaker Reference Design offers a number of advantages to product OEMs and their customers, including:

• Easy set up. No more complex than a simple Bluetooth device
• Simple easy to use voice commands for basic music player functions (volume, next song, play, pause, etc.)
• Works with all locally stored music and streaming music apps through standard Bluetooth protocols
• No special apps or hardware required on connected smartphones
• Proprietary AEC optimized for speech recognition allows voice barge-in when audio is playing
• Low cost system design with fewer components than a WIFI speaker, no WIFI radios required

Sensory is offering an early developer program to make it fast and easy to bring voice-controlled Bluetooth speakers to market, and the program includes custom wake word development, source code application support, pre-configured recognition sets, customer support and a go-to-market license.

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Sensory’s ‘AI at the Edge’ technologies are all designed to make consumer electronics smarter through always-listening wake words, speech and natural language recognition, face and voice biometrics and a variety of computer vision technologies, without the associated privacy risks associated with cloud-based AI. All of Sensory’s core AI technology suites, including TrulyHandsfree, TrulySecure and TrulyNatural, are embedded on device, and all processing is done locally, allowing these technologies to offer industry-leading accuracy, performance and user experience, without compromising user privacy and data security.

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