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Voice Activated Wake Up and Control for Medical Devices

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Many mobile applications use sensors to monitor various activities- movement, sound, temperature, and the like. The sensors, if “always on” in full power would shorten battery life. Recent chip developments enable applications and devices to operate in a low power mode until they detect the signal that wakes them up and activates them for the next task. The most common application is to use a motion sensing chip to wake up the device. Some applications use voice commands to “wake” the device from the low power detection mode and switch to the “recognition” mode, applying their algorithms to spoken words and phrases. This is ideal for many wearable devices as well as other battery operated devices.

Since devices utilize far less power, devices use smaller batteries and are smaller and lighter.

Devices that utilize voice activated wake up and control can be found in both the home and in the healthcare industry. As the IoT sector expands, expect to see more voice activated applications that enable users to interact with a device completely hands free.

Voice Activated Wake Up Devices

Some applications currently on the market that use voice activated wake up include:

  • Siri, Amazon Echo and Google Home can transform EMS patient assessment, care and documentation. Apps are available to preform drug cross checks and care checklists.
  • Voice Panic Detector with Voice Activation: Instead of needing to reach out to press a button, pull a cord, or even wait for passive detection, patients just call out “I need help” and the device connects them to the needed help. 
  • Amazon Echo: With the Amazon Echo, the user addresses voice commands to Amazon’s Alexa to play music or control other smart devices in the home. A broad range of compatible apps are available including medical sites like KidsMD from Boston Children’s Hospital.
  • Vocera Badge: Vocera provides voice activated call routing based on name, role, availability and shift changes.

Chips That Enable Voice Activated Applications and Devices

Manufacturer Chip Features Power during listen mode
Vesper VM1010 Wake-on-Sound Piezoelectric MEMS Microphone
  • Low-power wake-up
  • Programmable voice zone
  • Single-ended analog output
  • Bottom-port
  • Dust-proof piezoelectric MEMS construction
9 uW
Intel Intel®CORE™m3 processors
ON Semiconductor ON Semiconductor BelaSigna R281 Voice activation in portable devices, acting as an ultra-low-power, always-listening voice trigger.
  • Detects single, user-trained trigger phrase
  • Neither speaker nor language dependent
  • Asserts wakeup signal to connect host controller
  • Based on ultra-low-power technology developed for advance hearing aid solutions
  • Works with both analog and digital microphones
< 300uW
DSP Group DHX91 SoC A low-power chipset solution for home automation and security. It has audio capabilities and a powerful ARM926™ processor. 3 uW
Knowles Audience eS700 Voice wake software which enables the device to be in always listening mode, ready to understand and act upon verbal commands, without the need for interaction with touch, without significantly impacting battery life. Natural language and configurable voice commands.
Synaptics CX20924 CX20921 AudioSmart™ Far-Field Voice DSPs. Low-power WoV mode with embedded third-party voice wake-up engine. 2 or 4 microphones. 70 mW

Development Platforms and Solutions

Platform or Solution Partners Processors Use Cases
VM1010 Dev Platform Vesper, DSP and Sensory Vesper VM1010 DSP Group DBMD6,an ultra-low-power, always-on voice and audio processor Initiate voice processing through sound detection. See https://vespermems.com/products/vm1010/
AudioSmart™ Development Kits for Amazon AWS Synaptics and Amazon Synaptics CX20924 or CX20921 Help device makers quickly turn new ideas into marketable Alexa products that offer an ideal voice user experience.
Google Assistant SDK Google https://developers.google.com/assistant/sdk/overview The Google Assistant SDK lets you add hotword detection, voice control, natural language understanding and Google’s smarts to your devices.
SiriKit Apple https://developer.apple.com/sirikit/ SiriKit enables your iOS apps and watchOS apps to work with Siri, so users can get things done using just their voice. Your content and services can be used in new scenarios including access from the lock screen and hands-free use. Future plans include expansion to Apple HomePod.
Alexa Skills Kit Amazon https://developer.amazon.com/alexa-skills-kit Allows you to add Alexa Voice Service (AVS) to add intelligent voice control to any connected product that has a microphone and speaker.

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