Using a smaller BOM to make less boom

Don't know about you, but where I live, the price of gas has rocketed through the troposphere and is fast approaching the upper stratosphere. Which is to say, it has gone through the proverbial roof. It was almost $1.40 a liter (over $5 a gallon) the last time I stopped at a pump and is set to climb even higher, now that summer is approaching.

Small wonder that, for many car buyers, fuel economy is top of mind. Automakers are wise to this and have adopted a variety of measures to make their cars sip gas more slowly. For instance, many cars now deactivate cylinders when engine load is light and use fewer sound-damping materials to shed weight — because schlepping fewer pounds means less work, and less work means less gas.

These techniques save gas all right, but at a price: increased engine “boom” noise that can both annoy and fatigue the driver — not to mention everyone else in the vehicle. That's a problem. To address it, automakers use active noise control, or ANC, which plays noise-cancelling signals over speakers in the vehicle cabin. All fine and good, but until now, ANC solutions have used dedicated hardware, which can drive up Bill of Materials (BOM) costs and make it difficult to leverage the latest ANC technologies.

What to do? That's the subject of a recent whitepaper by my inestimable colleague Tina Jeffrey. Tina outlines some design considerations for ANC systems (choosing the right microphones makes a difference, for example) but mostly, she focuses on the advantages of running ANC logic on the processor or DSP of the car's infotainment system — as opposed to on a dedicated ANC module.

The benefits are many, including lower BOM costs, greater design flexibility, better cooperation between various acoustic functions in the car and — here's the one I like — less boom. But why sit there listening to me drone on about this? Download Tina's paper now and get the real deal.




Software-based ANC: a smaller BOM, with less boom.

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Bad idea, good idea

Why equip cars with external-sounding speakers? I thought you'd never ask. As it turns out, it can be a really bad idea. Or a really good one.

Here, for example, is a case where bad arguably prevails:


Source: Modern Mechanix blog

No doubt, the person who devised this system in 1931 thought it a brilliant, or at least entertaining, idea. Fortunately, common sense prevailed and the era of the "auto speaker," with its potential to scare the living daylights out of pedestrians, never came to pass.

But here's the thing: equipping cars with external-sounding speakers can be a great idea, when done for the right reasons. For example, some hybrid and electric vehicles are dangerously quiet for bicyclists and visually impaired pedestrians. Adding speakers to emit audible alerts or to project synthesized engine sounds can be just what the doctor ordered. Or rather, what the parliament ordered: earlier this month, members of the European Parliament stated that they want automakers to install acoustic alerting systems in hybrid vehicles by July 2019.

Mind you, safety isn't the only reason to project synthesized engine sounds. For example, fuel-saving techniques can make even powerful engines sound wimpy — a problem when high performance is a key ingredient of a car's branding. In that case, the automaker may wish to project synthesized engine sounds over both external and internal speakers. The speakers can help preserve the car's wow factor (provided they're not too loud) and the internal speakers, in particular, can make it easier for car owners who drive manual to shift gears by ear. The QNX concept car for acoustics offers a good example of this technology in action.

All of which to say, engine sound enhancement, also known as ESE, is here to stay. And it's not a bad time to be in the automotive-speaker business, either.

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QNX drives home (quietly) with embedded award

Every year, the organizers of the Embedded World conference hold the embedded AWARDs to recognize the most innovative software, hardware, and tools for embedded developers. And this year, they selected QNX Acoustics for Active Noise Control, the new QNX solution for eliminating engine "boom" noise in cars, as the winner in the software category.

This marks the third time that QNX Software Systems has taken home an embedded AWARD. The company also won in 2004 for power management technology and in 2006 for its multicore tools and OS — and in 2010, it nabbed a finalist spot for its persistent publish/subscribe messaging. That's a lot of plaques.

QNX Acoustics for ANC eliminates the need
for costly dedicated ANC hardware.

So why did QNX Acoustics for ANC get the blue ribbon treatment? I can't speak on behalf of the Embedded World judges, but check out this overview I wrote a few months ago. Or better yet, read this deeper dive from my colleague Tina Jeffrey.

Or skip the middle man entirely and check out the product page, which does a nice job of summarizing what QNX Acoustics for ANC is all about.

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QNX acoustics technology shortlisted for 2014 embedded AWARD

Okay, first things first. I didn't get the capitalization wrong. The name of the award really is spelled that way. I thought it odd at first, but I'm getting used to it. And besides, who am I to complain? After all, I spend a good part of my life promoting a product whose name is spelled all uppercase, and... where was I? Oh yes, the award!

Every year, the folks who organize the embedded world Exhibition&Conference hold the embedded AWARDs, which honor the most innovative software, hardware, and tools for embedded developers. And this year, the competition judges selected QNX Acoustics for Active Noise Control as a finalist in the software category.

If you aren’t familiar with our ANC solution, allow me to provide an overview — which will also help explain why the embedded AWARD judges are so impressed.

Automakers need to reduce fuel consumption. And to do that, they employ techniques such as variable engine displacement and operating the engine at lower RPM. These techniques may save gas, but they also result in "boom" noise that permeates the car's interior and can lead to driver distraction. And who needs more distraction?

QNX Acoustics for Active Noise Control can integrate 

seamlessly into a vehicle's infotainment system.

To reduce this noise, automakers use ANC, which plays “anti-noise” (sound proportional but inverted to the offending engine tones) over the car's speakers. The problem is, existing ANC systems require dedicated hardware, which adds design complexity, not to mention significant Bill of Materials costs. And who needs more costs?

Enter QNX Acoustics for ANC. Rather than use dedicated hardware, QNX ANC provides a software library that can run on the existing DSP or CPU of the car's head unit or audio system. This approach not only reduces hardware costs, also enables better performance, faster development, and more design flexibility. I could go on, but I will let my colleague Tina Jeffrey provide the full skinny.

Did I mention? This wouldn’t be the first time QNX Software Systems is tapped for an embedded AWARD. It has won two so far, in 2006 and 2004, for innovations in multi-core and power-management technology. It was also a finalist in 2010, for its persistent publish/subscribe messaging. Here's to making it a hat trick.

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QNX at CES: The media’s take

No, CES isn’t over yet. But the technology concept cars showcased in the QNX booth have already stoked the interest of journalists attending the event — and even of some not attending the event. So here, in no particular order, are examples of what they're saying.

Oh, and I’ve added a couple of stories that aren’t strictly CES-related, but appeared this week. They were too relevant to pass up.

• Engadget, Sean Cooper — Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG with QNX CAR for Infotainment hands-on
   
• Canadian Press, David Friend — Ottawa firm masters car sounds
   
• Fast Company, Chuck Tannert — Can Computers Drive Better Than Humans?
   
• Fast Company, Chuck Tannert — 10 Autonomous Driving Companies to Watch
   
• GigaOm, Kevin Fitchard — What do BlackBerry, Qualcomm and Nokia have in common? The connected car
   
• CrackBerry.com, Adam Zeis — In the driver's seat with QNX at CES 2014 (video)
   
• Engadget, Sarah Silbert — With the Snapdragon 602A, Qualcomm looks to improve the connected car
   
• i3, Rob Calem — Driverless Cars on the Rise
   
• The Peggy Smedley Show — Andrew Poliak of QNX at CES (audio interview discussing QNX technology concept cars and future of connected vehicles)
   
• Fox 4 Dallas, Steve Noviello — Consumer Electronics Show (video; jump to the :50 mark)
   
• BerryReview, Ronen Halevy — QNX Shows Off With 13 Partners at CES 
   
• AutoGuide, Sami Haj-Assaad — QNX Shows Tech Filled CLA45 AMG, Kia Soul at CES
   

That's it for now. I aim to post more stories and videos early next week. Stay tuned.

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"I want one"

Yesterday, I bemoaned that words and pictures could never capture the unique experience of being in one of the new QNX technology concept cars. But you know what? Video comes a little bit closer.

Of course, it can't capture everything. For instance, it can't reproduce the richness and clarity of the cars' full-band and wideband phone calls, or the sheer auditory relief offered by QNX active noise control software. But it can capture the reaction of someone experiencing these technologies.

For instance, in this video, I love watching how Adam from CrackBerry.com reacts to our latest innovations in automotive acoustics. Especially the part where says "I want one."

Did I mention? The clip also contains footage of our infotainment and digital cluster systems in action. Check it out:



A big thanks to Adam and the CrackBerry team for visiting us at CES.

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The QNX sound machine at CES

If you’ve ever had the pleasure of attending the Consumer Electronics Show, you’ll know that it’s a crowded place full of lights and noise. In the automotive North Hall, much of the cacophony comes from the legions of car customizers blasting bass from sedan-sized speakers. This year, QNX has brought a new kind of technology concept car to CES, based on a Kia Soul, that offers some subtler forms of sound artistry. (Sorry, hamster fans—I don’t think we’ll have your favorite mascot in the QNX booth.)


A sound ride: the new QNX technology concept car for acoustics

Let’s start with noise. Everyone likes a booming radio, sometimes. But if that’s the only tool you have to drown out engine noise you’ll go deaf. That’s where Active Noise Control (ANC) comes in. Think of ANC as a more sophisticated version of noise cancelling headphones that you don’t need to wear. Not only does ANC help keep the car’s cabin quiet, but the QNX solution is software based and doesn’t require a dedicated hardware module, saving the OEM and the consumer money.

The best part about ANC is that it helps cars become more fuel efficient. Huh? To keep car interiors quiet, automakers add baffling in the doors and under the floor to help mute engine noise. Dragging around that extra weight costs fuel. So removing the ballast (I mean baffles) lets the automakers make more fuel-efficient cars. And with ANC, which helps eliminate the extra noise caused by this approach, everyone wins.

Beyond wideband
Next up: a new level of call quality. If you’ve had the pleasure of conversing between two newer smartphones (BlackBerry Z10 or Z30, iPhone 5, Nokia Lumina 520, Samsung Galaxy S4, ...) you may have noticed that the call sounded better than what you’re used to. That’s because many newer phones support something called wideband audio (or HD Voice), which transmits more audible frequencies to make the call sound clearer. That’s good, but QNX wants to show what’s possible beyond wideband. So in the QNX technology concept car for acoustics, we’re demoing a new audio feature called full-band stereo calling, which is like having phone calls with CD quality audio. A full-band call has over six times the transmitted frequency range of a standard call, and more than double that of wideband. And as the name suggests, full-band stereo provides two independent channels, adding to the depth and sense of presence, making the call quality something that just has to be experienced.

Sound like a V8, sip like a Volt
Lastly — we get to pump up the volume! The technology concept car for acoustics also sports engine sound enhancement (ESE), which plays synthesized engine sounds over speakers inside the car. With ESE, your engine appears to sound a little more throaty. It may not be obvious, but this is also a fuel saving technology! As carmakers look for creative ways to turn gasoline slurpers into sippers, they’re implementing technologies that dynamically modify engine cylinder firing. Those changes can sometimes make a perfectly powerful engine sound anemic, which negatively impacts customer first impressions. Unfortunately, most people want a car that sounds and performs like it has a huge V8 even if they expect it to sip gas like a Chevy Volt. Both ANC and ESE can help the customer get over their performance anxiety. ESE also lets drivers get in tune with their engine, making it easier to shift by ear.

If you’re up for a little fun, you can also use ESE to make your car sound like something completely different. We’re playing the ESE audio outside the car as well as inside it. The Kia is using QNX ESE audio to masquerade as another car. Tweet us at @QNX_Auto if you can guess what it is!

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The wraps are off! First look at the new QNX technology concept car

A quick tour of one of the vehicles that QNX is unveiling at 2014 CES

You know what? Writing this post isn’t easy. All I’ve got are words and pictures, and neither could ever do justice to the user experience offered by the new QNX technology concept car. They cannot, for example, recreate the rich, luminous sound of the car’s full-band and wide-band hands-free calls. Nor can they evoke how the car blends speech recognition with a touch interface and physical controls to make navigation, Internet radio, and other applications wonderfully easy to use.

But on second thought, words and pictures aren’t that bad. Especially when the car — and the in-dash systems that the QNX concept team created for it — are so downright gorgeous. So what are we sitting around for? Time for a tour!

Actually... hold that thought. I just want to mention that, if you visit our Flickr page, you can find full-resolution versions of most of the images I've posted here. Because why settle for low res? Okay, back to the tour.

The car
I've got two things to say here. First, the car is based on a Mercedes-Benz CLA45 AMG. If you guessed the model correctly based on the teaser images we published on the QNX website, I bow in homage to your eagle eye. Second, while we snapped this photo in the QNX garage, don’t think for a minute that the garage is ever this neat and tidy. On any given day, it’s chock full of drill presses, tool boxes, work tables, embedded boards, and QNX engineers joyously modding the world’s coolest cars — exactly the kind of place you expect it to be. And want it to be! But to humor the photographer, we (temporarily) made this corner clutter-free. We're nice that way.



The dash
Let's get behind the wheel, where you can see the car's custom-built digital instrument cluster and infotainment system. The bold design, the clean layout, the super-easy-to-access controls — they all add up to systems you want to interact with. Just as important, the look-and-feel of the instrument cluster and infotainment system are totally different from the corresponding systems in our previous concept car — an excellent illustration of how the QNX platform can help customers create their own branded experiences.



The multi-talented cluster
Time to zoom in on the digital instrument cluster, which helps simplify driving tasks and minimize distraction with an impressive array of features. Turn-by-turn directions pulled from the navigation system? Check. Video feed from front and rear-view cameras? Check. Notifications of incoming phone calls? Check. Alerts of incoming text messages, which you can listen to at the touch of a steering-wheel button? Check.



The Android app support
Automakers want to tap into the talents of the mobile app community, and the QNX CAR Platform for Infotainment helps them do just that, with built-in support for Android, OpenGL ES, and HTML5. In the concept car, for example, you'll find an Android Jellybean version of iHeartRadio, Clear Channel’s digital radio service, running in a secure application container. The QNX CAR Platform takes this same sandboxed approach to running HTML5 apps — perfect for protecting both the HMI and the overall system from unpredictable web content:



Helping you get there in more ways than one
We designed the QNX CAR Platform to give automotive developers the greatest possible choice and flexibility. And that’s exactly what you see when it comes to navigation. For instance, the car supports navigation from Elektrobit:



and from HERE:



and from Kotei Informatics:



If that’s not enough, a demo system in the QNX booth at CES also demonstrates a navigation system from Aisin AW — more on that in an upcoming post.

Pardon me while I barge in
As I alluded earlier, what you can't see in the new concept car is just as important as what you can see. For instance, if you look at this image, you'll see the infotainment system's media player. But what you can't see is new acoustics technology from QNX that lets you "barge in" and issue voice commands even when a song is playing. How cool is that?



When you find yourself in times of trouble...
... don't let it be, but rather, check and see. And to do that, you can use the infotainment system's virtual mechanic, which keeps tabs on your car's health, including fluid levels, brake wear, and, in this case, low tire pressure:



The cloud connection
Hold on, what's this? It looks like a smartphone app with an interface similar to that of the virtual mechanic, above. In fact, it's a lot more than that, and it touches on some cool (and very new) technology that can help cars become fully managed citizens of the cloud. More on that in an upcoming post.



That's it for now. For more details on what QNX is showcasing this week at CES, check out the press releases posted on the QNX website. And stay tuned to this channel for further updates from 2014 CES — including a profile of our very new QNX technology concept car for acoustics.

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A sound approach to creating a quieter ride

Tina Jeffrey

Add sound to reduce noise levels inside the car. Yup, you read that right. And while it may seem counterintuitive, it’s precisely what automakers are doing to provide a better in-car experience. Let’s be clear: I’m not talking about playing a video of SpongeBob SquarePants on the rear-seat entertainment system to keep noisy kids quiet — although I can personally attest to the effectiveness of this method. Rather, I’m referring to deliberately synthesized sound played over a vehicle’s car speakers to cancel unwanted low-frequency engine tones in the passenger compartment, yielding a quieter and more pleasant ride.

So why is this even needed? It comes down to fuel economy. Automakers are continually looking at ways to reduce fuel consumption through techniques such as variable cylinder management (reducing the number of cylinders in operation under light engine load) and operating the engine at lower RPM. Some automakers are even cutting back on passive damping materials to decrease vehicle weight. These approaches do indeed reduce consumption, but they also result in more engine noise permeating the vehicle cabin, creating a noisier ride for occupants. To address the problem, noise vibration and harshness engineers (OEM engineers responsible for characterizing and improving sound quality in vehicles) are using innovative sound technologies such as active noise control (ANC).

Automotive ANC technology is analogous to the technology used in noise-cancelling headphones but is more difficult to implement, as developers must optimize the system based on the unique acoustic characteristics of the cabin interior. An ANC system must be able to function alongside a variety of other audio processing tasks such as audio playback, voice recognition, and hands-free communication.


The QNX Acoustics for Active Noise Control solution uses realtime engine data and sampled microphone data from the cabin to construct the “anti-noise” signal played over the car speakers.

So how does ANC work?
According to the principle of superposition, sound waves will travel and reflect off glass, the dash, and other surfaces inside the car; interfere with each other; and yield a resultant wave of greater or lower amplitude to the original wave. The result varies according to where in the passenger compartment the signal is measured. At some locations, the waves will “add” (constructive interference); at other locations, the waves will “subtract” or cancel each other (destructive interference). Systems must be tuned and calibrated to ensure optimal performance at driver and passenger listening positions (aka “sweet spots”).

To reduce offending low-frequency engine tones (typically <150 Hz), an ANC system typically requires real-time engine data (including RPM) in addition to signals from the cabin microphones. The ANC system then synthesizes and emits “anti-noise” signals that are directly proportional but inverted to the original offending engine tones, via the car’s speakers. The net effect is a reduction of the offending tones.


According to the superposition principle of sound waves, a noise signal and an anti-noise signal will cancel each other if the signals are 180 degrees out of phase. Image adapted from Wikipedia.

Achieving optimal performance for these in-vehicle systems is complex, and here’s why. First off, there are multiple sources of sound inside a car — some desirable and some not. These include the infotainment system, conversation between vehicle occupants, the engine, road, wind, and structural vibrations from air intake valves or the exhaust. Also, every car interior has unique acoustic characteristics. The location and position of seats; the position, number, and type of speakers and microphones; and the materials used inside the cabin all play a role in how an ANC system performs.

To be truly effective, an ANC solution must adapt quickly to changes in vehicle cabin acoustics that result from changes in acceleration and deceleration, windows opening and closing, changes in passenger seat positions, and temperature changes. The solution must also be robust; it shouldn’t become unstable or degrade the audio quality inside the cabin should, for example, a microphone stop working.

The solution for every vehicle model must be calibrated and tuned to achieve optimal performance. Besides the vehicle model, engine noise characteristics, and number and arrangement of speakers and microphones, the embedded platform being used also plays a role when tuning the system. System tuning can, with conventional solutions, take months to reach optimal performance levels. Consequently, solutions that ease and accelerate the tuning process, and that integrate seamlessly into a customer’s application, are highly desirable.

Automotive ANC solutions — then and now
Most existing ANC systems for engine noise require a dedicated hardware control module. But automakers are beginning to realize that it’s more cost effective to integrate ANC into existing vehicle hardware systems, such as the infotainment head unit. This level of integration facilitates cooperation between different audio processing tasks, such as managing a hands-free call and reducing noise in the cabin.

Earlier today, QNX announced the availability of a brand new software product that targets ANC for engine tone reduction in passenger vehicles. It’s a flexible, software-based solution that can be ported to floating or fixed-point DSPs or application processors, including ARM, SHARC, and x86, and it supports systems with or without an OS. A host application that executes on the vehicle’s head unit or audio amplifier manages ANC through the library’s API calls. As a result, the host application can fully integrate ANC functionality with its other audio tasks and control the entire acoustic processing chain.

Eliminating BOM costs
The upshot is that the QNX ANC solution can match or supersede the performance of a dedicated hardware module — and we have the benchmarks to show it. Let me leave you with some of the highlights of the QNX Acoustics for Active Noise Control solution:

• Significantly better performance than dedicated hardware solutions — The QNX solution can provide up to 9dB of reduction at the driver’s head position compared to 5dB for a comparative hardware solution in the same vehicle under the same conditions.
   
• Significant BOM cost savings — Eliminates the cost of a dedicated hardware module.
   
• Flexible and configurable — Can be integrated into the application processor or DSP of an existing infotainment system or audio amplifier, and can run on systems with or without an OS, giving automakers implementation choices. Also supports up to 6 microphone and 6 speaker-channel configurations.
   
• Faster time to market — Speeds development by shortening tuning efforts from many months to weeks. Also, a specialized team of QNX acoustic engineers can provide software support, consulting, calibration, and system tuning.

For the full skinny on QNX Acoustics for Active Noise Control, visit the QNX website.

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The 10 qualities of highly effective hands-free systems

The first time I saw — and heard — a hands-free kit in action was in 1988. (Or was it 1989? Meh, same difference.) At the time, I was pretty impressed with the sound quality. Heck, I was impressed that hands-free conversations were even possible. You have to remember that mobile phones were still an expensive novelty — about $4000 in today’s US dollars. And good grief, they looked like this:



It’s almost a shock to see how far we’ve come since 1988. We’ve become conditioned to devices that cost far less, do far more, and fit into much smaller pockets. (Though, admittedly, the size trend for smartphones has shifted into reverse.) Likewise, we’ve become conditioned to hands-free systems whose sound quality would put that 1998 kit to shame. The sound might have been okay at the time, but because of the contrast effect, it wouldn’t pass muster today. Our ears have become too discerning.

Which brings me to a new white paper from Phil Hetherington and Andrew Mohan of the acoustics team at QNX Software Systems. Evaluating hands-free solutions from various suppliers can be a complex endeavor, for the simple fact that hands-free systems have become so sophisticated and complex. To help simplify the decision process, Phil and Andrew have boiled the problem down to 10 key factors:

• Acoustic echo cancellation
  
• Noise reduction and speech reconstruction
  
• Multi-channel support
  
• Automatic gain control
  
• Equalization
  
• Wind buffet suppression
  
• Intelligibility enhancement
  
• Noise dependent receive gain
  
• Bandwidth extension
  
• Wideband support

Ultimately, you must judge a hands-free solution by the quality of the useful sound it delivers. By focusing on these 10 essentials, you can make a much sounder judgment (pun fully intended).

Recently, Electronic Design published a version of this paper on their website. For a longer version, which includes a decision checklist, visit the QNX download center.

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Full-duplex in the car? Who even knows what this means?

I know lots of people don't understand full-duplex. Hell, I think most people have never even heard of it. Unfortunately, these same people have repeatedly experienced its poor cousin — half-duplex — without really understanding either.

Please don't take me wrong. I'm not patronizing. I spent a few years in telecoms and barely understand it myself. What I do know is that half-duplex = bad. And that full-duplex = good.

So when I talked to my colleagues at the office today, I knew we were using half-duplex. How did I know? I started to say something and so did someone else at the other end of the line. I couldn't hear them talking while I was talking (a certain amount of latency adds to the circus) so I stopped talking... and so did they. Then there were lots of simultaneous barely-understood apologies and a long uncomfortable silence. Then we both tried to break the silence at the same time; more uncomfortable silence. Very awkward and distracting. I know you know what I mean.

So... um... could someone please fix this? I mean, we send people to the moon after all.

I hate to blow our own (proverbial) horn (well sometimes) but believe me, I have to. QNX has THE best audio technology solution in or out of the car. And this technology, just so happens to be in the new QNX technology concept car at CES. Yes, really!

Today I witnessed a conversation in the QNX booth between someone in the Bentley and someone in a sound-proof booth. Well, to my (sheer) delight, one person talked while the other person talked over him... and both heard the other! Just like a real face-to-face conversation with overlapping dialogue. It was so natural, it almost slipped by as if it were expected:



In a world where communication is more often than not at the root of all successes and failures, I think this is nothing short of a long-overdue miracle.

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Am I crazy for talking to my car?

Earlier this afternoon, I participated in a connected car panel at SpeechTEK 2012, hosted by our friend Mazin Gilbert from AT&T. The other panelists included Greg Bielby of VoltDelta, Thomas Schalk of Agero, and Hakan Kostepen of Panasonic.

Even though Mazin did a fantastic job, not every panelist had a chance to answer every question. I was itching to answer some, so here are my responses to the questions that I didn't get to answer, or where I feel I could have provided a more complete response.

Have speech technologies matured to the point where they can be used robustly in the car? The general answer to this question from the panel was yes, but I think the real answer is a qualified yes. The technologies exist, but often aren't applied or may need auto-specific adaptations to handle in-cabin noise or other issues. Natural language recognition was an oft-stated driving technology, but a missing piece to the puzzle is hybrid recognition. I don't mean pushing recognition wholesale to the cloud, like Siri does. I mean a true split of the recognition effort, where each part does what it’s best at. Put the front half of acoustic processing in the vehicle to clean up the audio and convert the waveform to frequency-domain data, then send the data to the cloud-based server. The cloud server can then parse and interpret the data, and send back the result.

Hybrid speech rec solves three problems at once: better audio signals (the car can improve audio specific to the in-cabin environment), better cost (frequency data is far more compressed than raw audio, so you pay less for data transfer), and better responsiveness (hybrid rec gives the server time to start working on the response while it's coming in instead of waiting for the whole utterance to finish before starting).

Is driver distraction a major business driver, or is it the "Siri effect"? Currently, the car industry seems to use driver distraction as a reason to push a lot of features into speech. Many of those uses are gimmicky. Personally, I don't care if I can set my climate control system with voice — why would I when I can simply turn a dial? I once had someone ask me about the feasibility of adding voice recognition commands for rolling down the windows. I asked him, "Yes, but wouldn't people just push the window button?"

We shouldn’t implement speech commands just because we can. They may have contributed to excitement in the early adopter crowd, but we're beyond that now. Mind you, there are some seriously useful ways to use voice. For instance, any time you need to pick from a huge number of choices, voice recognition is the natural way to go. Calling contacts ("Call Sarah Potter"), entering destinations ("Go to 3121 South Park Street"), or picking music ("Play Audioslave") are all much easier than using an HMI to enter the same information, and safer to boot. It just has to work consistently and accurately.

Will car makers see more speech moving to the cloud, or will it be a hybrid of cloud and embedded? I disagree with the majority of the panel on this one, and, I think, the majority of people in the industry. Most auto people believe a hybrid between embedded and cloud allows the best of both worlds — good recognition and updatability when connected, and consistent reliability when not. My colleague Andrew Poliak also champions this view with a memorable catch phrase: Zombie Apocalypse. That is, you still want the system to work, albeit partially, when the infrastructure isn't available.

But if you ask me, everyone is missing the point — theirs is a technology-centric point of view. Everyday customer acceptance of a particular technology is notoriously harsh: if it doesn't work well, it gets rejected out of hand. Good cloud solutions beat an embedded solution hands-down; they just need some improvements (see my hybrid bullet above). Once a customer experiences a good solution, they will become frustrated with one that performs poorly. In my opinion, it's better not to offer the service at all, than to try a graceful degradation of capability, because most customers won't understand or care. Spend the effort instead on making sure you always have an acceptable cloud connection — either through multiple redundant mechanisms or a car-based powerful antenna — and you'll be better off. Even when the car knows some data that the cloud doesn't (like a mobile's contact list or music selection), there's no need to handle that on the embedded side. The cloud recognition server is powerful enough to not require the data set a priori. And I think we can predict an eventual migration of phone data to cloud-based data (or cloud-synchronized data) that makes the car's knowledge either easily transferrable or less relevant.

Who makes money, and how, from voice-enabled agents or voice services? This was one of the best questions of the panel, because nobody really knows the exact model, but everybody agreed that customer tolerance is very low. The most likely candidate is ad-based revenue. This doesn't mean reading ads aloud to the driver, but rather, positively influencing search results for either active or temporary situation-based points of interest (POIs). Depending on how valuable the service is to the driver, there will still be an option for service-based payments and high-value apps.

Standards and building mobile apps — will it come? You need standards if you want to build an app platform that will promote application creation and adoption. That's what we're doing with the QNX CAR 2 application platform — creating a way for someone other than the car companies to join the ecosystem and to deploy their apps to the car in a controlled way. But don't forget, you need a standard way to deploy apps for the cloud half of the recognition, too.

To close, let me share two photos. One was taken outside the Marriott Marquis, the hotel hosting the conference just off of Times Square in NYC. The other is from our PR agency, Breakaway Communications. What do they have in common? Wooden water towers. Sorry, I couldn't help myself; I just love those things. They just look so quaint in a city full of glass and brick.

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In-car displays you hear, rather than see

We still have a lot in common with our caveman ancestors. (Yes, I know, they didn't all live in caves. Some lived in forests, others in savannahs, and still others in jungles. But I'm trying to make a point, so bear with me!)

Take, for example, our sense of hearing. At one time, we used auditory cues to locate prey or, conversely, avoid becoming prey. If a cave bear growled, getting a fix on the location of the growl could mean the difference between life and death. At the very least, it helped you avoid running directly into the bear's mouth.

Kidding aside, the human auditory system has a serious ability to fix the location, direction, and trajectory of objects, be they cave bears or Buicks. And it's an ability that's been honed from time immemorial. So why not take advantage of it when creating user interfaces for cars?

Which brings us to spatial auditory displays. In a nutshell, these displays allow you to perceive sound as coming from various locations in a three-dimensional space. Deployed in a car, they can help you intuitively identify voices and sources of instructions, and help pinpoint the location and relative trajectory of danger. They can also improve reaction times to application prompts and potentially hazardous events.

Interested in this topic? Learn more in Scott Pennock's ECD article, "Spatial auditory displays: Reducing cognitive load and improving driver reaction times."

I know, that's a lot to take in. So let's look at an example.

Locating the emergency vehicle, without really trying
Have you ever been cruising along when, suddenly, you hear an ambulance siren? I don't know about you, but I often spend time figuring out where, exactly, the ambulance is coming from. And I don't always get it right. That's called a location error.

Such errors can occur for a variety of reasons. For example, if the ambulance is approaching from the right, but your left window is open and a building on the left is reflecting sound from the siren, you might make the mistake of thinking that the ambulance is approaching from the left. Your mind realizes, quite correctly, that the sound is coming from the left, but the environment is conspiring to mask where the sound is actually coming from.

A spatial auditory display can help address this problem by controlling the acoustic cues you hear. The degree to which the display can do this depends, in part, on the hardware employed. For example, a display based on a large array of loudspeakers can provide more location information than one based on two loudspeakers.

In any case (and this is important), the display can help you determine the location more quickly and with less cognitive load — which means you may have more brain cycles to respond to the situation appropriately.


Helping the driver locate and track an emergency vehicle

A slight right, not a sharp right
I'm only scratching the surface here. Spatial auditory displays can, in fact, help improve all kinds of driving activities, from engaging in a handsfree call to using your navigation system.

For example, rather than simply say "turn right", the display could emit the instruction from the right side of the vehicle. It could even use apparent motion of the auditory prompt to convey a slight right as opposed to a sharp right.

But enough from me. To learn more about spatial auditory displays, check out a new article from my colleague Scott Pennock, whose knowledge of spatial auditory displays far surpasses mine. The article is called Spatial auditory displays: Reducing cognitive load and improving driver reaction times, and it has just been published by Embedded Computing Design magazine.
 

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WIRED Autopia slips into driver's seat of QNX reference vehicle

Chances are, you've seen pictures of the new QNX reference vehicle. You may have even seen the "making of" video that QNX released a few days ago. But have you seen any video of the vehicle in action?

If not, check out this vid by Doug Newcomb of WIRED Autopia. Last week, at Telematics Detroit, Doug met up with Andrew Poliak of QNX for a tour of the vehicle and its various features, including a re-skinnable UI and voice-controlled Facebook integration. The camera was rolling, and here's what it caught:

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Find me a Starbucks! QNX concept car showcases power of WATSON speech engine

Yes, you can talk to the QNX concept car and tell it what to do.

Recently, our friends at AT&T invited us to bring the concept car to their "Living the Networked Life" event in New York. We said yes, of course! After all, what could be cooler than riding the streets of Gotham City in a digitally pimped-out Porsche 911?

Kidding aside, the event provided an excellent opportunity to demonstrate how the car takes advantage of WATSON, AT&T's natural-language speech engine. To get an idea of what WATSON can do, check out this video from Terrence O'Brien of Engadget:



For the full Engadget article, click here. And stay tuned for more updates from the Living the Networked Life event.
 

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Making of the QNX concept car... honest

We created this video as a backdrop for CES 2012 where we unveiled the latest QNX concept car (a Porsche 911). Good thing, too, as people clearly stated that they would not have believed we did this cool retrofit ourselves without proof.


 

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Video: The secret to making hands-free noise-free

 

Explaining a highly technical product to a broad audience is tough. To succeed, you must reach out to people on their own terms, without being condescending. Most people love a good explanation, but everyone hates being talked down to.

Case in point: The QNX Acoustic Processing Suite. This software runs in millions of cars and offers a benefit that everyone can relate to: clear, rich, easy-to-understand hands-free calls. But once you start explaining how the suite does this, it's easy to get mired in technical jargon and to forget the bigger picture — something that even a technical audience wants to see.

So we dropped the jargon and opted for a creative approach. It involves a marching band, a rock guitarist, and, for good measure, an electric fan with a really long extension cord. Seriously.

Intrigued yet? Well, then, grab some popcorn and dim the lights:




Interested in learning more about this technology? Check out the acoustic processing page on the QNX website.

BTW, companies that use the QNX Acoustic Processing Suite in their products include OnStar, whose FMV aftermarket mirror recently won a CES Innovations Design and Engineering Award.

Posted by Paul Leroux
 

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New release of QNX acoustic processing suite means less noise, less tuning for hands-free systems

Paul Leroux

This just in: QNX has released version 2.0 of its acoustic processing suite, a modular software library designed to maximize the quality and clarity of automotive hands-free systems.

The suite, used by 18 automakers on over 100 vehicle platforms, provides modules for both the receive side and the send side of hands-free calls. The modules include acoustic echo cancellation, noise reduction, wind blocking, dynamic parametric equalization, bandwidth extension, high frequency encoding, and many others. Together, they enable high-quality voice communication, even in a noisy automotive interior.

Highlights of version 2.0 include:

Enhanced noise reduction — Minimizes audio distortions and significantly improves call clarity. Can also reconstruct speech masked by low-frequency road and engine noise.

Automatic delay calculation and compensation — Eliminates almost all product tuning, enabling automakers to save significant deployment time and expense.

Off-Axis noise rejection — Rejects sound not directly in front of a microphone or speaker, allowing dual-microphone solutions to hone in on the person speaking for greater intelligibility.

To read the press release, click here. To learn more about the acoustic processing suite, visit the QNX website.


The QNX Aviage Acoustic Processing Suite can run on the general purpose processor,
saving the cost of a DSP.

 

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Wanted: Haunted Vehicles

Halloween is just around the corner, and that reminds me of the haunted room at Lucent Bell Labs. Mind you, it wasn’t really haunted. But for a moment, I was convinced.

Let me explain. As I entered the room, I could hear two of my colleagues talking to each other, and by the sound of their voices, they were both sitting right in front of me. But when I looked, I could see only one person. Creepy, to say the least.

It took a few seconds, but I finally realized what was happening: The other colleague was in a different room, talking over a perfectly tuned prototype of a conference phone. The sense of presence was so real that I couldn’t help but feel we were all in the same room — even after I became aware of the “trick” being played!

It was then that I realized it: We don’t know what we’re missing until we experience it.

Making it real
Current telephone calls don’t sound like face-to-face conversations because the telephone network and terminals band-limit speech from about 50-10000 Hz down to 300-3400 Hz. To make matters worse, the phone’s single channel of audio eliminates spatial information about the sound source. As a result, we perceive most sounds as coming from the same point in space.

But here's the thing: The historical reasons for transmitting these single-channel narrowband speech signals no longer apply. Current technologies — such as wideband speech coders, spatial audio, and VoIP — are enabling speech communications with wider bandwidth speech and greater spatial information.

Many in the industry refer to these next-generation telecommunications systems as telepresence systems. “Telepresence” refers to the degree of realism created by a telecommunications system. Traditional systems have low telepresence while newer systems that use wider bandwidth speech and spatial audio have high telepresence.

Some people believe that a visual display is a must-have for a telepresence system. In reality, a display can decrease telepresence if its quality is poor. Experience shows that an audio-only system can have such high telepresence that people can't distinguish it from face-to-face communications — witness my haunting experience at Lucent Bell Labs.

Until recently, widespread deployment of telepresence systems has hit a roadblock: lack of standardization. Fortunately, the IETF CLUE Working Group and ITU-T Study Groups 16 and 12 are actively developing standards to remedy this situation.

Pimp my ride with telepresence
Telepresence systems have a lot to offer in an automotive environment. For instance, they could:

• reduce driver distraction
• make it easier to understand speech in the presence of vehicle noise
• reduce the fatigue that comes from trying to understand a degraded voice signal

Moreover, a telepresence system makes the talker on the far end of the phone connection sound more like they are in the vehicle; it also makes the talker easier to identify.

Successful deployment of telepresence in an automotive environment depends on several factors:

• attention to the design of vehicle platforms
• use of high-performance acoustic processing algorithms (AEC, NR, etc.), such as those provided by the QNX acoustic processing suite
• the ability to transport telepresence signals between telephony terminals — this is being enabled by increased VoIP availability (via LTE, for instance)

I don't know about you, but I'm looking forward to the day when my vehicle is haunted like that lab in New Jersey!

For additional reading on this topic, download the whitepaper, "Wideband Speech Communications for Automotive: the Good, the Bad, and the Ugly".

 

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