XMOS CEO, Mark Lippett offers valuable career advice in this interview from IDG Connect.
XMOS CEO, Mark Lippett, explores the convergence of AI and the IoT.
29th October 2019 , Bristol, UK – The VocalFusion 2-mic dev kit for Alexa Voice Services launched by XMOS for smart TVs and set-top boxes in July 2019 has been qualified by Amazon, the company announces today.
The qualification from Amazon highlights the product’s engineering innovation, enabling manufacturers to build Amazon Alexa voice capabilities into their products more easily and cost effectively than ever before.
XMOS’s dev kit, which is based on the XMOS XVF3510 voice processor, is a BOM-efficient solution built for modern living spaces. The product’s next-generation acoustic algorithms create a compelling, premium experience with far-field voice control, opening the door to a more natural conversation with technology.
Mark Lippett, president and CEO at XMOS said: “Amazon is seen by many experts and consumers as the leader in the world of voice, and our engineering expertise will be helping to transform the way consumers interact with everyday devices like TVs.
“This qualification from Amazon is a real endorsement for the VocalFusion 2-mic dev kit and the XMOS brand.”
The XMOS XVF3510 voice processor is available at a market-leading cost of $0.99 on orders over one million units a year.
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About XMOS
XMOS stands at the intersection between voice-processing, edge-AI and the IoT (AIoT). Backed by some of the best names in high-tech venture capital, XMOS’ unique silicon architecture and differentiated software delivers class-leading voice-enabled solutions to a wide variety of AIoT applications.
Media contact
Sanjay Dove/Ben Musgrove
Wildfire
xmos@wildfirepr.com
+44 (0)20 8408 8000
In this article from the Electronic Engineering Journal, Max Maxfield asks whether it’s time to be scared by the age of Artificial Intelligence.
30th September 2019, Bristol, UK – XMOS, a Bristol-based technology company, today announces the completion of a new $19 million financing round – fuelling the company’s global growth, consolidating its technical leadership in far-field voice interfaces and developing a new product roadmap for the Artificial Intelligence of Things.
The funding will support XMOS’s continued growth and an expanded global footprint, including new staff, in its Hong Kong office. This investment will enable the company to capitalise on its technical leadership in the far-field voice interface market, working with leading OEMs around the world.
The funding will also support the development of XMOS’ AIoT (Artificial Intelligence of Things) solution portfolio. This will build on the company’s 10-year pedigree in deep technology solutions for consumer devices, expanding its product-set into a potentially transformative market that will fuel new digital and data services in the smart homes, smart cities and smart factories of the future.
The $19 million investment round comprised equity funding, with participation from existing investors, and a venture debt facility with Harbert European Growth Capital.
Mark Lippett, President and CEO of XMOS, said: “We’re very grateful for the ongoing commitment of our existing investors and welcome Harbert to our exciting journey. This increased investment will be a major part of the growth of the company as we ramp up the rollout of our exceptional XVF3510 2-mic voice interface and accelerate our AIoT roadmap.”
David Bateman, Senior Managing Partner at Harbert European Growth Capital, said: “We have structured our venture debt facility to help later stage scale-ups just like XMOS gain access to capital without diluting its existing shareholders. We’re delighted to join XMOS in its drive to scale its existing business and position itself for the huge opportunity represented by the AIoT.”
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About XMOS
XMOS stands at the intersection between voice-processing, edge-AI and the IoT (AIoT). Backed by some of the best names in high-tech venture capital, XMOS’ unique silicon architecture and differentiated software delivers class-leading voice-enabled solutions to a wide variety of AIoT applications.
About Harbert European Growth Capital
Harbert European Growth Capital provides specialty debt financing to European growth businesses with strong management, proven revenue traction and in need of capital to fuel organic growth, predominantly in the technology, life sciences and environmental sectors.
Media contact
Sanjay Dove/Ben Musgrove
Wildfire
xmos@wildfirepr.com
+44 (0)20 8408 8000
Berlin: 4-9 September
At Europe’s largest tech show, voice assistants were out in full force. Last year, IFA was all about smart speakers. This year, Google’s Assistant and Amazon Alexa were everywhere inside Berlin’s sprawling Messe convention centre. The two leading voice assistants were ever-present in the expo halls, integrated in a vast number of partner products and demonstrations, from soundbars and TVs to laptops and cars. Google and Amazon could have foregone their own stands and still maintained massive presence throughout the event. Bixby, by contrast, was nowhere to be seen, despite Samsung having one of the largest stands of the entire show.
Shortly before IFA kicked off, XMOS’s new 2-mic voice interface passed Amazon AVS qualification with flying colours. The XVF3510 developer kit is aimed at enabling manufacturers to embed top-performing voice interfaces into smart products at an industry-leading price. While news of the qualification arrived too close to IFA for us to create a big splash about it at the show, we did get an early mention on the Alexa Developer Blog. And we took advantage of the acoustically-challenging conference environment to give demonstrations of the XVF3510’s impressive performance in noisy conditions. A successful barge-in from a distance of 3 metres against a backdrop of 90db conference noise makes for a compelling demo, especially when you add in separate point source of music from a mobile phone for good measure.
Amazon’s smart home stand featured a range of products, including a range of 3rd party smart home products, as well as a selection of developer kits. Today more than 60,000 smart home products can be controlled with Alexa, the vast majority of which are built by 3rd parties using chips like the new XMOS XVF3510. We were invited behind the scenes to the Alexa partner drinks, where we had a chance to meet other systems integrators, ODMs and dev kit providers, including our friends from Fraunhofer and Bragi, together with several new contacts made at the event.
Smart TVs played a prominent role on the expo floor. We saw TVs with integrated smart mics from Vestel and Toshiba, while Grundig had smart mic integrated into a soundbar. Sony has packed its new Android TV with a plethora of assistants, including Google Assistant, Amazon Alexa and Apple AirPlay, giving end users the full range of services to choose from. LG has voice control with both Alexa and Google Assistant, but so far has only opted for push-to-talk. We believe the days of the remote control are numbered, and we’ll start to see more and more TVs with a built-in far-field voice interface.
Whichever way you look at it, it is clear that the Voice Market is crossing the chasm into general adoption, and we’re excited to be leading the charge in this growing ecosystem.
Bristol, 17 September 2019– XMOS is delighted to announce Gold Sponsorship of the forthcoming Bristol Technology Showcase, due to be held on Friday, 8th November at Aerospace Bristol, home of the iconic Concorde.
Designing intelligent human-machine interfaces for the IoT, XMOS is backed by some of the best names in high tech venture capital. With a 10-year pedigree in Hi-Res and multichannel USB audio, the organisation now sits at the forefront of the far-field voice interface market, opening the door to a more natural conversation with technology.
Bristol Technology Showcase (BTS) will focus on emerging technologies and themes encompassed in the 4th industrial revolution. The impressive line-up of speakers includes Dr Paul Neil, VP Marketing and Product Management at XMOS who, with over 27-years international experience in the semiconductor industry, will deliver a session exploring the future of voice.
XMOS will also feature in the exhibition showcase, enabling visitors to engage and interact with the very latest in voice technology.
Speaking about the event, BTS Founder Nick Rutherford said “We’re delighted to be bringing a new discussion to Bristol and locating it at the home of Concorde. The speed of technological change is so quick today and it’s only going to get faster. It’s wonderful to be able to host an event with some amazing technology companies, speakers and wider businesses and allow delegates to experience some of these technologies first hand. Great Bristol businesses, amazing technology and the ability to showcase and demonstrate them, it’s going to be a great day.”
XMOS CEO, Mark Lippett said “This is a fantastic opportunity to partner with a local event and showcase the latest voice technology from XMOS. BTS will really raise the profile of technology in the South West and beyond and we’re delighted to offer our support.”
Tickets can be purchased here.
view website bristoltechnologyshowcase
follow on Twitter @Btechshowcase
follow on LinkedIn: Bristol Technology Showcase
Japan, 31 July 2019–PLEN Cube is a new, AI assistant service with a big personality! It’ll face you when you speak, give a little shake when it wakes up, nod its head as it ponders – it’ll even dance to your music. The PLEN Cube has plenty to make you smile.
Don’t be fooled by it’s size, it may fit in the palm of your hand but this playful, smart cube is a technology powerhouse with built-in full-HD camera, display, microphone array and speakers along with cutting-edge software speaker, and microphone array. It’s equipped with the latest technology such as facial recognition, face-tracking and voice recognition.
Thanks to the XMOS XVF3100 voice processor, you can control PLEN using your voice. It’ll hear your voice command accurately from close and all the way across the room. Get the weather forecast, stream music, set reminders and update your schedule – It’s good to talk!
Simply tell it to take a photo or video and it’ll move into action. PLEN Cube can also be understood immediately with “body language” and audiovisual cues, bringing a natural, intuitive feel to the way you communicate with your cube.
PLEN Cube can rotate 360 degrees to take a panoramic photo and uses computer vision technology to follow your facewherever you go. So PLEN can capture all your special moments and – sinceit’s wifi and bluetooth-enabled – post them to your social media sites too!
We think there’s PLENty to get excited about.
XMOS stands at the interface between voiceprocessing, biometrics and artificial intelligence. Today our unique silicon architecture and highly differentiated software delivers class-leading far-field voice capture for consumer electronics, and we’re building for a more natural human machine interface tomorrow. For more information, please visit www.xmos.com.
PLEN Robotics is based on the experience of PLEN Project Co., Ltd., which has been developing small robots for over 10 years in Japan, with the aim of developing home and personal service robots that are more practical than ever and that make people’s lives more efficient.
Okawa Takashi
takashio@xmos.com
+81-80-2247-9188
In this article, our CEO Mark Lippett discusses the role Edge AI will play in reducing the burden on cloud infrastructure as the number of connected devices skyrockets.
A candid review of our XVF3510 voice processor from Max Maxfield.
