Breakthrough Voice ExtractionTM Technology
Enhances Voice Interface Performance — Even in Extreme Noise Conditions
Kopin Corporation (NASDAQ:KOPN) announced today that it will launch and
demonstrate its Whisper™ Voice Chip at CES®2016,
one of the noisiest and most difficult places on planet Earth for users
of smart phones and wearables to hear and be heard. Designed to enhance
the performance of existing audio systems and speech
recognition engines, the Whisper chip allows the speaker’s voice to
be clearly “heard” by the listener, whether a person or a machine —
even in extreme noise environments. The Whisper chip incorporates
Kopin’s Voice Extraction™ Technology that enables a truly hands-free
voice interface.
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“The Whisper Chip is a dramatic leap forward in voice control
technology,” said Kopin President and CEO Dr. John C.C. Fan. “Users of
smart phones and wearables will now, for the first time ever, enjoy
reliable voice operation of all functions, including command and
control, search and dictation – even when they speak in a whisper.
Unreliable and inaccurate response to voice commands or voice-to-text,
especially in noisy environments, is holding back user satisfaction, and
therefore use, of voice interface for both wearables and smart phones.
Reliable speech recognition is what users have been waiting for. With
the launch of Kopin’s Whisper technology, the long wait is finally over.”
At the heart of the Whisper Chip is Kopin’s proprietary Voice
Extraction™ Filter (VEF) technology. VEF is a patented approach to
singulating the voice signal without distorting it. It allows the user
to speak in a low or normal voice, even in very noisy environments, and
be clearly heard. There is no need to raise your voice. VEF was
developed, tested and refined in products designed for high noise
military and industrial settings over several years and provides a
dramatic improvement in the performance of speech recognition systems
when compared to the traditional methods of noise cancelation in use
today.
The accompanying chart compares the performance of smart glasses with
the Whisper chip against the automatic speech recognition (ASR) and
noise cancellation technologies found in two popular devices: a leading
Bluetooth earphone and a leading smart phone. While the Whisper chip’s
performance remains consistent as noise levels increase, the earphone’s
performance begins degrading at 75 decibels (the amount of noise
associated with a car interior or dishwasher) while the smart phone’s
ASR performance starts to drop at approximately 85 decibels (or the
amount of noise associated with restaurant).
“Our customers tell us, it’s the only solution that is truly
hands-free,” said Ted Stecko, new product development manager for
Verizon Wireless. ”Verizon and Kopin Corporation have been working
together on enterprise and public safety hands free wearable computing
solutions for nearly four years. The most notable capability Kopin has
demonstrated to Verizon customers is a true hands-free, noise cancelled
speech recognition interface that works for everyone, literally
everywhere, regardless of the noisy environment.”
For manufacturers, the Whisper Chip is simple to implement, sitting
between the microphones and speech engine. It works with the leading
operating systems, processors and speech recognition engines. Key
features and benefits include:
-
Better ASR performance – Voice Extraction Filter dramatically
increases the accuracy of existing speech recognition engines in noisy
environments, whether the processing resides on the local device or in
the cloud. -
Clearer human-to-human voice – sounds natural and ‘clean’ even in
noisy environments -
Faster speech engine response – Whisper enables a faster response
because the clean voice signal requires less processing. -
Enhanced privacy – There is no need to yell into your device, even in
a noisy environment, so the only person that hears you is the person
or machine that you are intending to speak to. -
Tunable – parameters can be adjusted to optimize for different
applications and different microphone and speaker configurations.
The Whisper Chip is completely different than other audio chips: it is
an all-digital solution that runs at only 16MHz, consumes less than 12mW
of power and replaces the CODEC – no ADC or DAC is needed. It is also
compact (4 x 4 mm) and accepts up to four (4) digital microphone inputs.
The technology embedded in the Whisper chip is protected by more than 20
patents and patents pending.
The Whisper Chip is available for evaluation and design-in. Kopin will
demonstrate the Whisper Chip performance at their reception – Wearables:
The Missing Pieces – at Kopin’s suite at the Venetian during CES.
Additional information is available at events@kopin.com,
or for more information or to schedule a demonstration please contact
Paul Baker, VP of Business Development at pbaker@kopin.com
or 508 870 5959.
About Kopin
Kopin Corporation is a leading developer of innovative wearable
computing technologies and solutions. Kopin’s technology portfolio
includes ultra-small displays, optics, speech enhancement technology,
software, low-power ASICs, and ergonomically designed smart headset
concept systems. Kopin’s proprietary components and technology are
protected by more than 300 global patents and patents pending, with more
than 95% related to wearable technologies. For more information, please
visit Kopin’s website at www.kopin.com.
Forward-Looking Statements
Statements in this press release may be considered “forward-looking”
statements under the “Safe Harbor” provisions of the Private Securities
Litigation Reform Act of 1995. These include, without limitation,
statements relating to our expectation that the Whisper chip will be
launched and demonstrated at CES2016; our belief that unreliable and inaccurate response to voice
commands or voice-to-text, especially in noise environments, is holding
back user satisfaction and use of voice interface for both wearable
products and smart phones and that with the launch of Kopin’s Whisper
technology, the long wait is finally over; and the Whisper technology is
protected by patents pending. These statements involve a number of risks
and uncertainties that could cause actual results to differ materially
from those expressed in the forward-looking statements. These risks and
uncertainties include, but are not limited to, the following: the
Whisper chip may not be ready to be demonstrated and launched at CES2016or it may be demonstrated but not ready for production
launch; even with the launch of Whisper technology users may not be
satisfied with voice interface with wearable products and smartphones;
our pending patents may not be issued;it may take longer than
the Company estimates to develop the Whisper chip; the Company’s products may
not be accepted by the market place; manufacturing, marketing or other
issues may prevent either the adoption or acceptance of products; and
other risk factors and cautionary statements listed in the Company’s
periodic reports and registration statements filed with the Securities
and Exchange Commission, including the Annual Report on Form 10-K for
the 12 months ended December 27, 2014, and the Company’s subsequent
filings with the Securities and Exchange Commission. You should not
place undue reliance on any forward-looking statements, which are based
only on information currently available to the Company and only as of
the date on which they are made. The Company undertakes no obligation to
update any of these forward-looking statements to reflect events or
circumstances occurring after the date of this report.
View source version on businesswire.com: http://www.businesswire.com/news/home/20160104005485/en/
Press:
WCG
Linsey McNew, 512-693-4877
LMcNew@wcgworld.com
or
Investors:
Kopin
Investor Relations
Richard Sneider, 508-870-5959
CFO
rsneider@kopin.com
or
JoAnn
Horne, 415-445-3233
Kopin Investor Relations
Market
Street Partners
JHorne@marletstreetpartners.com