Intelligent sound sensing Audio Analytic has announced major growth as part of its strategy to target the smart/connected home market. The company has increased staff numbers by over 25%, expanded its patent portfolio in the US and UK, won the prestigious IET Global Innovation Award, and further developed its technology to improve performance.
The connected home market is growing rapidly. Research by Park Associates found that in 2015 37% of US households expect to buy at least one smart device, such as cameras, microphones, thermostats, home hubs and baby monitors, a figure that is expected to grow further in future years.
Audio Analytic’s patented, award winning ai3TM sound sensing and classification technology enables device manufacturers to quickly and easily add intelligent audio monitoring to their products, providing differentiation and adding value to consumers. Products incorporating Audio Analytic’s technology can automatically detect common sounds such as smoke alarms, breaking glass, baby cries, car alarms, gun shots or aggression.
Following a move to new offices in 2014, Audio Analytic has been investing significantly in key staff, boosting employee numbers. As well as growing engineering numbers by 20%, Andrew Mason joins from IT vendor Devoteam as international sales manager. He will assist head of business development Andrea Cantone to target global opportunities within the connected home ecosystem, including building partnerships with consumer electronics and security product manufacturers, telecoms operators and other service providers. In March 2015 the company launched its Global Telecoms and Service Provider partner programmes, designed to assist telcos and utilities to deliver connected home products and services to their customers.
On a technology front Audio Analytic has just released version 3.0 of its core sound sensing technology, which adds advanced capabilities, dramatically improves computational performance and makes it even faster to integrate into third party products. It features new adaptive acoustic profiling which automatically detects and ignores consistent background noises (such as a radio left on the house). Additionally, Audio Analytic has developed its smart microphone version 2.0 reference design to showcase its technology to potential partners.
“The connected home market is growing rapidly, as more and more smart devices are deployed by consumers looking to monitor and control their home environments,” said Chris Mitchell, founder and CEO, Audio Analytic. “While many products currently rely on video to detect untoward events, sound analysis adds a new dimension to protection, making it a critical component in the coming wave of smart devices. With the combination of our technology leadership, strong market position and expanded workforce we believe we are perfectly placed to develop rapidly, with connected home products incorporating our technology appearing within the next three months.”
