Synaptics Incorporated announced its AudioSmart far-field voice DSPs have been selected by HARMAN International for the Harman/Kardon Allure (4-mic) and Allure Portable (2-mic) voice-activated smart speaker family. The Allure devices feature Amazon’s intelligent Alexa Voice Service and utilize Synaptics’ highly-responsive AudioSmart solution to activate Alexa – even while playing premium 360-degree high-fidelity music and/or when users are several meters away from the device. The Synaptics AudioSmart solution separates speech signals from background noises, such as sounds from a television, and processes only the human speech for exceptional recognition accuracy. AudioSmart delivers a best-in-class end-user experience for all major Automated Speech Recognition services like Alexa. This voice barge-in technology is enabled by full duplex acoustic echo cancellation that detects the wake-word and allows the device to hear user requests even when music is playing. AudioSmart is also enhanced with Smart Source Locator technology that identifies the direction of the incoming voice. Synaptics’ far-field voice DSPs are very low-power – essential to the battery-powered Allure Portable – enabling portable devices to stay on and “always listening” for user commands, even during music playback.