Custom voice AI in embedded systems

Witekio uses the Voice Development Kit to produce on-device voice interactions thus answering its customers needs for embedded voice recognition.

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06/2021

Multiple voice interactions in embedded systems

Appliances and industrial equipments

Wake Word, Automatic Speech Recognition, Text-to-Speech

In a nutshell…

As international experts in embedded systems and IoT, Witekio helps high tech makers to build their software. The French company, now part of AVNET Group, has a large skillset to support its clients throughout their projects. Witekio provides the Voice Development Kit to its clients with specific needs in embedded voice technologies.

Challenge & Requirements

Developing custom voice AI applications in embedded systems for various industries

The use of voice technologies has never been as efficient as it is today, with technical improvements and better user adoption, they are becoming real interaction methods. This democratization is naturally accompanied by an increase in enterprise projects involving voice. On the front line to meet this growing demand, Witekio and Vivoka are joining forces.

Providing voice technologies

Vivoka exclusively develops its own software, the Voice Development Kit, a development kit specialized in voice. Offering the best embedded voice recognition technologies, the VDK is a powerful and scalable tool for companies with a need in voice.

Embedded systems expertise

Witekio, as a complement to Vivoka, is positioned to develop embedded and IoT software systems for innovative projects thanks to its experience and technical know-how. Witekio’s engineering team can provide VDK integration.

#1 Use Case

Professional appliances with embedded voice commands

Goal

The use of voice commands improves the appliance’s user experience with a human-centric approach. For such devices, interactions methods are key for product adoption and also to build a strong customer link with the product itself.

Challenges

When adressing the consumer market, data privacy is something that needs specific attention from the brand. In addition, the product has to embed technologies whose costs can be mastered. Such technologies also need to have an optimized tech footprint to seamlessly operate within the product without alterating its composition.

Technical stack

Embedded Linux OS on MPUs
VDK’s offline Automatic Speech Recognition and Multilingual Speech Synthesis engines.

#2 Use Case

Offline voice-activated vending machine

Goal

Provide touchless technologies for vending machines enable users to change their ways of interaction. A simple request, confirmation, contactless payment, and order collection user experience avoids the user touching any screen and can be enabled using voice parsing.

Challenges

Updates to the vending machine hardware that rarely comes with a microphone, directional or otherwise. This is potentially complex and would require equally complex maintenance interventions for each and every machine.

Technical stack

i.MX6 microprocessor from NXP
Custom microphone (close-field)
Raspberry Pi with embedded ASR from Voice Development Kit
Communication via WebSockets in JSON

#3 Use Case

Remotely operated crane with embedded voice control

Goal

Using embedded voice recognition to control the crane’s movements and capacities makes it possible for a user to not only rely on onboard physical supports such as control pannels or computers. The crane user can now remotely control their equipment and keep their entire focus on their tasks to ensure safety.

Challenges

Creating a custom system that can remotely control an industrial crane (in this case it was an experiment with a low-scale crane model) with specific technical requirements. On the other hand, it is necessary to invent voice commands that can accurately and with a fast reactivity control the basic navigation tasks.

Technical stack

Yocto Linux
Avnet embedded SMARC module with NXP i.MX8Mplus
VDK’s embedded Automatic Speech Recognition

For developers, by developers

Try our voice technologies now

1

Sign up first on the Console

Before integrating with VDK, test our online playground: Vivoka Console.

2

Develop and test your use cases

Design, create and try all of your features.

3

Submit your project

Share your project and talk about it with our expert for real integration.

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Benefits and Improvements

What value does voice AI bring to embedded systems?

Hands-free interactions for safety

To comply with the need of touch interactions, voice technologies have been developed and integrated. Voice has the specific ability to be used hands-free, thus granting adding safety to worker in potentially hazardous areas.

Easy user device's onboarding

Voice technologies, recognition or synthesis, enhance the simplicity of a user getting to know the product and how to use it. Intuitive voice-based learning is the key to even the skill-gap between collaborators.

Faster features with voice commands

Voice commands are intuitive and more fast to produce than traditional analog or touch interactions. Many available features in industrial equipments like the crane allow users to act and react quickly at anytime.

Improved user experience

Voice interactions are seamlessly used within different product and services to reinvent their use. The robustness of embedded voice AI is tackling common user frustrations like service unavailability or privacy.

Embedding Custom Voice Commands with Vivoka’s Voice Development Kit

Vivoka, Witekio and CareOS join forces to show you how to build and integrate complex voice commands using Vivoka’s Voice Development Kit (VDK). You will also discover new use case that can be done with the VDK and that are already in action with our partners. No coding experience required!

Watch the webinar

Testimonial from our client

“We partnered with Vivoka on several innovative projects on embedded Linux system, and delivered, in a very short time, multi-lingual natural voice interactions fully running “at the edge” to our customers. With our expertise in Embedded Linux and Vivoka Voice Development Kit we can quickly customize and integrate their technology to demonstrate the benefit of speech recognition and text to speech for any type of product from industrial ovens to coffee machines. Their framework is a great solution for all our projects with embedded voice commands.“

Cédric VINCENT

VP of Technology

Decision-Making

Why did Witekio choose the Voice Development Kit?

Clear pricing models

Voice Development Kit’s technologies are working on business models that makes the innovation’s cost seamless and measurable for companies.

Technology's simplicity

With a no-code prototyping interface, the VDK Studio is the perfect tool to get a hand on voice technologies and create great solutions without specific skills.

Data privacy

Being on-device, Vivoka’s and b<>com’s technologies are private-by-design which is a key requirement of many solutions such as what Witekio’s customers are developing.