Audience dials up $15M to suppress noise on cell phones
Audience, maker of mobile chips that can dampen background noise when people speak on their cell phones, just brought in $15 million in a fourth round of funding. This brings the Mountain View, Calif. company’s total capital to $60 million since its inception in 2004.
Audience claims that it modeled its product on the normal functioning of the human ear — allowing it to block out some sounds while focusing others. This allows users to have… Continue Reading
Ditech Networks unveils better clarity Bluetooth headsets, car kits
Ditech Networks is launching software for cell phone companies today that will allow them to build Bluetooth headsets and hands-free cell phone car kits with much better call quality.
The company says it has created mathematical formulas, or algorithms, that make it much easier to remove the noise and sharpen quality in a cell phone call for both the person with the Bluetooth headset and the person at the other end of the line.
Ditech’s rivals include… Continue Reading
Aliph releases second-generation, sleeker Jawbone headset
updated
Aliph, a Silicon Valley maker of a remarkably effective noise-reducing headset, has been able to do what a lot of companies haven’t in the wireless headset market: Sell something expensive while the competition is selling cheap stuff.
The company has so far sold millions of its Jawbone wireless cell phone ear piece units since launching in 2006, at a hefty price of $120, in a commodity market where cheap ear pieces sell for $40.
It has done… Continue Reading
Audience announces $15M for clear voice communications
Audience, a maker of voice processing technology that mimics the sort of audio processing that happens in the human brain, has announced its $15 million third round of financing.
We actually covered Audience’s unveiling in February, and first broke news on the funding, but the announcement fills out list of investors,and now includes Tallwood Venture Capital and VentureTech Alliance. We already mentioned Paul Allen’sVulcan Capital and New Enterprise Associates.
The Mountain View, Calif., company makes the A1010,… Continue Reading
Technology is getting more human-like: Audience, Numenta and more
Some very smart people believe machines will take over — directing human affairs — sometime soon, perhaps within the next thirty years.
So much malarkey, you might think, until you consider the sorts of technologies being developed lately — some of which are starting to replicate human intelligence, one step at a time.
There’s Silicon Valley’s Numenta, the company started by Palm founder Jeff Hawkins, which is building a computer system that aims to think like the… Continue Reading