Researchers from the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow are developing a multi-microphone system that allows people to talk or dictate text freely without the need for headphones with microphones or traditional hands-free sets, even when the speaker is moving around the room.

The research aims to develop technologies to build systems consisting of a network of interconnected microphones that will allow natural conversation to take place even when the speaker moves away from the microphones or is in a place where noise, other voices or room reverberation can interfere.

Smart home technologies or augmented or virtual reality often rely on voice-based human-machine communication. Commands or requests are more often given to such devices not via an app, touchscreen or keyboard, but by voice. The speech recognition algorithms underpinning such systems are becoming increasingly effective, but the problem remains the fact that the capabilities of legacy microphone systems are relatively limited when the user is not in their immediate vicinity.

A state-of-the-art smart microphone system, which is being developed by researchers in Krakow, could dramatically simplify the use of these technologies. The APDAS (Audio Processing using Distributed Acoustic Sensors) project could also give users entirely new possibilities for using their devices. Smart home microphones, for example, can create a network that allows biometric identification and location of people in different rooms.

The APDAS project is being carried out with international partners, including the University of Valencia in Spain, the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and Johns Hopkins University in the US.

Arkadiusz Słomczyński