[Nfbf-l] interesting Article, something to think about

Wed Jul 18 01:26:02 UTC 2018

Fascinating!! Thanks so much for sharing this most interesting article! 

Kathy

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Sorry, looks like you have to arrow down quite a bit to get to this article.

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Subject: [Nfbf-l] interesting Article, something to think about

A friend forwarded me this article which paints a picture of what our future
may hold.  I found it quite interesting and  thought I would share it.

All Ears: Always-On Listening Devices Could Soon Be Everywhere

Tiny microphones are moving us toward a world where all gadgets can respond
to a voice command

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By 

Christopher Mims 

*	 

Christopher Mims

The Wall Street Journal

*	Biography <https://www.wsj.com/news/author/8003> Christopher Mims
<https://www.wsj.com/news/author/8003> 
*	@mims <http://twitter.com/mims> 
*	christophermims <http://facebook.com/christophermims> 
*	christopher.mims at wsj.com <mailto:christopher.mims at wsj.com> 

July 12, 2018 12:00 p.m. ET 

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Illustration: PETER ARKLE 

If every tree falling in every forest might soon be heard by an
internet-connected microphone, what hope is there for our privacy?

Already when you're sitting in a room with an iPhone, an Apple Watch and a
smart assistant like Amazon Echo or Google Home, you're surrounded by a
dozen microphones. (Newer iPhones have four and the Echo has seven, while
the smartwatch has just one, for now.)

Add in the latest smart wireless headphones-Apple's expected next-generation
AirPods or competing ones from Bose or Shure-along with talking microwave
ovens and TVs from Samsung, LG and others, and anyone at home or in an
open-plan office could soon be within earshot of hundreds of microphones.
Most of them will be listening for a wake word like "Alexa," "Hey Siri," or
"OK Google," just as our phones and smart assistants do now.

The roadmaps of tech giants and startups alike show how sound is poised to
become the first ubiquitous connection between users and the
artificial-intelligence hive mind the internet is becoming.

Driving this change are massive volumes of components, originally designed
for smartphones and other mobile devices, that have dropped in price and
grown in functionality over the past decade.

Mini Mic

For a hundred years, microphones consisted of a relatively large membrane
whose vibrations were converted to electrical impulses. But starting in the
1980s, engineers worked out ways to make microphones tiny, bordering on
microscopic. Most still have a pocket of air trapped behind a vibrating
element, but now they can be carved out of silicon, just like the microchips
to which they're attached. Smartphones, smart speakers and any other gadget
that listens for your voice all use these kinds of microphones.

Knowles <http://quotes.wsj.com/KN>  Corp. , based in Itasca, Ill., has more
than 50% of this market. Selling to all major manufacturers of mobile
devices, the company has shipped 12 billion of them over the past decade,
says a company spokesman. (A long list of other microphone suppliers,
including Goertek <http://quotes.wsj.com/CN/XSHE/002241>  , AAC Technologies
and STMicroelectronics, constitute the remainder of that market.)

Vesper's tiny piezoelectric MEMS microphones next to a pencil. Photo: Vesper
Technologies 

One ongoing challenge for microphones has been physics: The smaller
microphones get, the more of them you need to capture a sound, and the more
processing of that sound is required.

Startups such as Boston-based Vesper Technologies, Inc.-which has received
money from Baidu, Bose and Amazon's Alexa Fund-are meeting the challenge
with even tinier, yet more capable designs built around minuscule flaps of
silicon that generate electric current when bent by sound waves. Vesper
claims this gives their microphone unique capabilities, like understanding
your voice even in windy conditions, and drawing zero power when awaiting a
"wake word," since sound itself generates the power the microphone needs.

The total cost to equip a gadget with an array of these tiny microphones and
the electronics to interpret simple commands is approaching $10 or less,
says Matt Crowley, Vesper's chief executive. Individual microphones now cost
between 20 cents and 60 cents, says Mike Rosa, an analyst and marketing
chief at Applied Materials Inc., which supplies manufacturing equipment to
makers of microchips. 

Always Listening

We're moving toward a world in which everything with a plug or battery can
respond to a voice command.

Apple's next AirPods could have
<https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2018-06-25/apple-is-said-to-amplify
-its-audio-device-strategy-in-2019?mod=article_inline>  many of the
capabilities that Vesper claims its microphones will enable, such as
built-in noise cancellation. (In the past, Apple has used several suppliers
for its microphones.) Meanwhile, the CEO of Samsung's consumer-electronics
division recently told The Wall Street Journal that by 2020 his company
plans to equip every single device
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/samsung-wants-every-appliance-to-talk-to-you-b
y-2020-1527076012?mod=article_inline>  it sells-from TVs to
refrigerators-with microphones.

It could be unnerving to be surrounded by listening devices, but the paradox
is that as the technology develops, so does our ability to free these
gadgets from having to connect to the internet.

Voice-controlled trash can from Simplehuman. Photo: Simplehuman 

Consider the voice-controlled trash can from Simplehuman. Say "Open can" and
it opens-and then closes on its own once the user walks away. That's it.

While it's easy to make fun of a high-tech trash can, especially one that
costs $200, this one tackles one of the biggest concerns that comes with
smart assistants: the fact that they record what we tell them
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-alexa-powered-device-recorded-and-share
d-users-conversation-without-permission-1527203250?mod=article_inline>  and
send it back to their parent companies.

Simplehuman's trash can doesn't do this, says Guy Cohen, the company's
director of electronics engineering. That's because the latest microphones
and their attached microprocessors process human speech in the gadget
itself, without connecting to the cloud.

At first, self-contained processing in gadgets will be limited to simple
commands and wake words, like telling a device to turn on or setting a
timer. In time, these commands will become more complex.

One justification for adding voice control to everything we use is that it
could ultimately be an easier and more elegant interface than the morass of
buttons and menus we face today. Just think how hard it is to work a
friend's microwave, convection oven or thermostat, and imagine instead just
telling it what you'd like it to do.

A future full of always-listening devices will have its own complications,
of course. One challenge will be the necessity of all of us going through
our days constantly muttering to ourselves, or projecting our voices at
tin-eared appliances.

As anyone who lives with multiple virtual assistants can attest, it is
tricky to talk to one without inadvertently involving the whole crowd.
Simplehuman admits that its trash can sometimes spontaneously opens in
response to background noise. Even Amazon's Echo wakes up when it isn't
needed, and can misinterpret family chatter as a directive to fire off
seemingly random messages
<https://www.wsj.com/articles/amazon-alexa-powered-device-recorded-and-share
d-users-conversation-without-permission-1527203250?mod=article_inline> .

When we leave instructions for dog sitters or house guests, they include
notes about the quirks of the interfaces to our appliances, gadgets and
heating and cooling systems. In the future, they might consist solely of a
list of names for all those devices, customized to reflect our tastes.

It might not be long before you find yourself saying something like, "David
Bowie, preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Frank Zappa, wash the dishes."

Write to Christopher Mims at christopher.mims at wsj.com
<mailto:christopher.mims at wsj.com> 

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