Front End DSPAudio TechnologiesFor In-Car Applications

Revision 2.1

July 2016

www.alango.com

STATISTICS

• Founded 2002

• Offices:

Headquarters: Haifa (Israel)

R&D: Haifa (Israel), St. Petersburg (Russia)

Regional sales representative: China, Korea, Singapore, Taiwan, Japan

• Main business:

DSP software technologies for voice communication and audio

• Main business model:

Technologies licensing, NRE (porting, customization, support)

• Competitive advantage:

Richest portfolio of technologies suitable for a variety of applications

• Products with Alango technologies:

Automotive, mobile, mobile accessories, conferencing, hearing enhancement

Over 30 million products

Over 10 million cars

• Ownership:

Private, no venture capital or other institutional investors

MAIN OPERATIONAL FIELDS

• Automotive

Hands-free

In car voice communication

Music and entertainment

Speech recognition enhancement

• Mobile

Noise & echo cancellation

Speech enhancement

Audio enhancement

Speech recognition improvement

• Mobile Bluetooth accessories

Dual and single microphone echo and noise cancellation for all product types

Music enhancement for mobile Bluetooth headsets and portable speakers

• Conferencing

Noise & echo cancellation for audio tele-conferencing

Sound reinforcement

• Hearing Enhancement

Software technologies for personal hearing enhancement

Software and hardware reference designs for assistive listening products

Alango intro

2

www.alango.com

Adanis:

www.adanis.co.kr (Bluetooth OEM modules/products)

Clipcomm:

www.clipcomm.co.kr (Bluetooth OEM products)

Essys:

www.essys.co.kr (Bluetooth OEM modules/products)

Digen:

www.digen.co.kr/en (Car multimedia systems)

Flaircom:

www.flaircom.com (Bluetooth OEM modules/products)

JVC/Kenwood:

www.jvc.com (Car radio)

Humax Automotive:

www.humaxauto.com/ek/ (Car audio, automotive navigation systems)

Hyundai-Mobis

http://en.mobis.co.kr/ (Car audio, automotive navigation systems)

LG InnoTek:

www.lginnotek.com (Bluetooth OEM modules)

Alango automotive customersMCS Logic:

www.mcslogic.com (Bluetooth OEM modules/products)

Motorola:

www.motorola.com (PND, HFK)

Movon:

www.movon.co.kr (Bluetooth products, OEM modules)

Pioneer:

www.pioneerelectronics.com (Car radio)

Shinwa

www.shinwa-net.com (Car multimedia systems)

Sierra Wireless:

www.sierrawireless.com (Communication chipsets)

ST Microelectronics:

www.st.com (GPS chipsets)

Supertooth:

www.supertooth.net (Bluetooth hands-free products)

Tamul Multimedia:

www.tamulsite.co.kr (SoC)

3

www.alango.com

Opel Junior

Chevrolet Spark

Kia Ray

Hyundai Santa-Fe

GM Alpheon

Kia K9

Opel Meriva

Chevrolet CaptivaChevrolet Aveo Chevrolet New Cruze Chevrolet New Spark Hyundai New Avante Hyundai Equus Hyundai New Genesis Hyundai Grandeur HG

Hyundai i30 Hyundai i40 Hyundai ix25 Hyundai ix35 Hyundai Sonata Hyundai Sonata LF Hyundai Sonata YF Hyundai Veracruz

Kia Carens Kia New Carnival Kia K3 Kia K5 Kia K7 Kia Mohavi

Kia Soul Kia Sportage R Opel Adam Opel Astra Opel ZafiraKia Sorento

Renault Samsung

Motors SM3

Renault Samsung

Motors SM5

Renault Samsung

Motors QM5

Renault Samsung

Motors QM3

As of May 2016… and much more soonSsangyong KorandoSsangyong Chairman Ssangyong Rexton Ssangyong Tivoli

Alango inside

Hyundai IONYQ

Kia New Soul

Kia Niro Hybrid Kia Sedona

Kia New Soul EV

4

www.alango.com

In-car voice and audio problemsNoise, noise, noise

Engine, road, wind and rain noises varying fast in amplitude and spectrum mask

sounds inside a car

• User (driver) is not heard by the other party

• User does not hear the other party or navigation system voice prompts

• Speech recognition system cannot understand user’s voice

• Driver and rear passengers cannot communicate with each other in soft

voice

• Comfortable music listening requires changing sound volume with noise

changes

• Soft or classical music is difficult to enjoy

ReverberationSound reflections from hard surfaces (windows, dashboard) generate strong

acoustic echo with long echo tail

• User (driver) is not heard when the other party is talking (half duplex)

• Speech recognition system cannot understand user’s voice when the user

barges in

• Loudspeaker frequency response is distorted by irregularities an notches

caused by reflections

5

www.alango.com

Alango solutions

VOICE SOLUTIONS

• Voice Communication Package (VCP) – a field proven,

complete set of integrated software technologies enabling

efficient hands-free, noise-free, echo-free, full-duplex phone

conversation inside a car

Status: VCP-7 available now, VCP-8 release in 2016/Q2

• Voice Enhancement Package (VEP) – a comprehensive suite

of software technologies helping the automatic speech

recognition system to understand the user

Status: release in 2017/Q1

• In-car Voice Communication (IVC) – an integrated package

of ultra low delay technologies allowing easy voice

communication between car driver and passengers

Status: release in 2016/Q4

AUDIO SOLUTIONS

• Music Refiner (MuRefiner™) – a package of advanced audio

enhancement technologies enhancing music listening inside a

car environment

Status: MuRefiner-1 available now, MuRefiner-2 2016/Q3

• Automatic Volume & eQualization (AVQ) – automatic,

ambient noise dependent volume and frequency equalization

ensuring comfortable music listening and comprehension in

varying driving conditions

Status: CE version available now, in-car version release

2016/Q3

6

www.alango.com

Voice Communication Package (VCP)

Field proven solution for clear voice in car noise (>20M cars by May 2016)

2012 – 1.5M cars, 2013 – 3M cars, 2014 -5M cars, 2015 – 8M cars, 2016 – 10M cars (est.)

7

Blu

eto

oth

pro

toco

l

stack

an

d R

F

Voice Communication Package G8

Noise

Basic VCP VCP add-ons (optional)

Acoustic

echo

Voice

AGC

DRCEQ

EQ

Noise

Suppressor

Acoustic

Echo

Canceller

Adaptive

Microphone

Array

Loudspeaker

correction

AGC

DRC

Noise

Suppressor

to be updated

in VCP-8

to be replaced with new

in VCP-8

to be introduced

in VCP-8

Main Microphone Optional

Microphones

Easy

Listen™

www.alango.com

Alango patent pending solution

8

It’s your choice!

1

Hands-free mode

Select o Drivero Passengero Both

Alango Delta Microphone Configuration

User controlled

directivity

1. Driver speech preserved

2. Passenger speech preserved

3. Driver and Passenger speech preserved

Preferred direction

Driver Passenger

1

3

2

20 – 40 mm

2 3

www.alango.com

Alango VCP is fully compliant with ITU-T P.1100/P.1110 and

VDA 1.6 specifications with:

- Class "Type 1" full duplex echo cancellation;

- Perfect voice quality scores;

- All tests inside the standard specified limits.

Official tests reports are available to customers upon request.

VCP Auto Industry Compliance

9

www.alango.com

VCP eCall Compliance

As of April 2018 eCall will be compulsory on all new vehicles sold in

Europe.

Alango Technologies is compliant with eCall and the relevant

standards:

GOST R55531: Russian standard (ERA_GLONASS) defining

emergency call systems test methodology;

ITU-T P.1140: ITU test methods for vehicles with dedicated eCall

system.

Official tests reports are available to customers upon request.

10

www.alango.com

VCP for Smart Phone Enabled Display Audio

Alango’s VCP, supporting 24kHz sampling rate, is compliant

with Apple’s CarPlay and Google’s Android Auto

connectivity protocols. This compatibility supports features

such as Facetime audio, echo canceller for voice recognition

interaction – and speech enhancement, and Bluetooth

hands-free communication.

Initial implementations include ARM9, ARM Cortex-A series

and Qualcomm/CSR with more expected soon.

11

www.alango.com

VCP blocks

Block Functionality

Adaptive Directional Microphone

(ADM)

ADM reduces all types of ambient noises (stationary and non-stationary including wind) depending on the direction of

signal arrival. ADM significantly improves voice quality compared to single microphone solutions without introducing voice

distortions

Acoustic Echo Cancelling (AEC)

Cancels acoustic echoes caused by speaker-microphone acoustic coupling enabling full-duplex communication. Alango AEC

with high resolution sub-band echo suppression supports long echo tails (up to 700ms) with fast convergence and no initial

echo

Noise Suppressor (NS)

Reduces stationary, transient and tonal noises in the microphone and loudspeaker signals. Alango high resolution NS allows

fast adaptation (70ms for transient noises) with adaptive, up to 24dB noise suppression without introducing noticeable

voice distortion

Automatic Gain Control (AGC) and

Dynamic Range Compressor (DRC)

Equalizes voice levels in microphone and loudspeaker signals ensuring good intelligibility. Alango AGC technology is robust

to ambient noises and allows fast signal level equalization (~200ms) without increasing ambient noises

Frequency equalizer Allows precise adjustment of microphone and loudspeaker frequency responses with high frequency resolution

EasyListen™ Slows down incoming speech in real time improving intelligibility of fast talkers, foreign language, mailbox and numbers

Automatic Volume & Equalization

(AVQ)

Modifies the loudspeaker signal according to the ambient noise level and spectrum providing perceptually equal loudness

and intelligibility in variable driving conditions (speed, type of road, rain, open window, etc.)

12

www.alango.com

In-car voice and audio problems

Mode CPU load RAM (Data) ROM (Code)

NBS-Narrow Band Speech (8KHz) 45 MCPS 35KBytes 55Kbytes

WBS-Wide Band Speech (16KHz) 65 MCPS 55KBytes 55Kbytes

SWBS-Super Wide Band Speech (24 KHz) 90 MCPS 60KBytes 55Kbytes

(*) Numbers in the table are provided for reference only. Real numbers may vary depending on system configuration and version optimization level.

Numbers are for VCP-7. Numbers for VCP-8 may differ.

Supported sampling frequencies: 8KHz, 16KHz, 24KHz

Available for DSP/MCU cores: ARM 9, 11, Cortex A8, A9, A15, M4 | CEVA TL-III |

Renesas SH2,SH4 | Synopsys ARC | ADI Blackfin | NXP Coolflux | CSR Kalimba

Operating systems: Android, Linux, WinCE, µITRON

Resources (Cortex A8, 0-wait memory)*:

enabled AEC 64ms (Tx), NS (Tx,Rx), AGC (Tx,Rx), DRC (Tx,Rx), EQ (Tx,Rx)

VCP technical information

13

www.alango.com

Voice Enhancement in car environmentAlango VCP-7, VCP-8 preprocessing can significantly improve voice quality for voice

communication and automatic speech recognition applications.

Special Voice Enhancement Package (VEP) will be introduced in 2016.

Noise

Acoustic echo of voice

prompts or stereo music

Voice

VCP or VEP

Adaptive

Microphone

Array

(up to 4)

Noise

Suppressor

Acoustic

Stereo Echo

Canceller

(optional)

ASR engine

TTS engine

Voice Controlled

System

+Audio (L) Audio + voice prompts

+Audio (R) Audio + voice prompts

14

www.alango.com

Objective speech enhancement tests

1. 100 test phrases recorded by native English speakers (gold samples) are reproduced by the

mouth simulator. The sampling frequency is 16kHz.

2. Two microphones are realistically positioned in the cabin lighting system.

3. Signals from the microphones are processed and fed into Google speech recognizer via

Google speech API.

4. Recognition results are automatically compared with the correct ones and statistics files are

generated.

5. Difference between the gold samples and processed signals is analyzed by ITU PESQ-MOS

speech quality estimation software

40mm

Microphones

(built into lights

compartment)

speech recognizerUser’s mouth

simulator

ITU PESQ

MOS analyzer

DSP processing box

15

www.alango.com

Speech recognition improvement with VCP-7

Tests have been conducted

in Ford Focus Estate 2012

Percentage of phrases recognized correctly with VCP speech enhancement technologies

97%

78%

72%

33%

5%

96%

84%

75%

40%

9%

98%

90%

85%

54%

18%

98%94%

88%

57%

22%

0%

10%

20%

30%

40%

50%

60%

70%

80%

90%

100%

20dB 15dB 9dB 5dB - 3dB

Reco

gn

itio

n

1 mic: "as is"

1 mic: Noise Suppresion

2 mic: Adaptive Dual Microphone

2 mic: Adaptive Dual Microphone + Noise Suppresion

Signal to Noise Ratio

Standing, all off Standing, engine + AC Driving ~ 40 km/h Driving ~ 80 km/h Driving ~ 120 km/h

16

www.alango.com

VCP speech quality enhancement

with ITU PESQ-MOS (4.5 max possible score)

Objective voice quality improvement with VCP-7

Tests have been conducted

in Ford Focus Estate 2012

3.13

2.45

2.04

1.64

1.32

3.33

2.58

2.29

1.84

1.48

3.96

2.55

2.27

1.93

1.64

4.14

2.72

2.46

2.13

1.81

0

0.5

1

1.5

2

2.5

3

3.5

4

4.5

20dB 15dB 9dB 5dB - 3dB

En

han

cem

en

t

1 mic: "as is"

1 mic: Noise Suppresion

2 mic: Adaptive Dual Microphone

2 mic: Adaptive Dual Microphone + Noise Suppresion

Standing, all off Standing, engine + AC Driving ~ 40 km/h

Signal to Noise Ratio

Driving ~ 80 km/h Driving ~ 120 km/h

17

www.alango.com

MuRefiner – audio enhancement for cars

Mu-Refiner – an unique set of audio enhancement technologies improving music experience in cars

G2

Stereo NormalizerExpands, shrinks or normalizes stereo effect making it optimal for specific cars and individual user preferences

Spectral CompanderReduces the spectral dynamic range making music “brighter” and more enjoyable in mobile conditions

Bass CorrectorBoosting up bass line while preventing the speaker and power amplifier overload

Noise dependent volume and frequency equalization (Generation-2, 2016)Automatically adjusting volume and frequency equalizer according to ambient car cabin noise

Loudspeaker response correction (Generation-2, 2016)Correction of loudspeaker amplitude and phase response for reproducing natural sound

G2

Mu-Refiner™ technology

Spectral

Compander

Stereo

Normalizer

Bass

Corrector

Noise Dependent

Volume & EQ

Loudspeaker

CorrectionAudioAudio AudioAudio Audio Audio

G2 G2

18

www.alango.com

In Car Communication solution

Scheduled for release in 2016/Q4 In-car Voice Communication (IVC) package – a set of technologies enabling easy

voice communication inside a car between front and rear seats without turning the head or raising driver’s voice

Creating in-vehicle intercom system is complicated by acoustic feedback

problems caused by:

• Strong acoustic coupling between loudspeaker and microphones

• High noise levels while driving requiring a large speaker volume

• Large distance from the driver to the microphone requiring a large microphone gain

AFC – Acoustic Feedback Cancellation

NS – Noise Suppression

AVQ – Automatic Volume & eQualization

AFS – Acoustic Feedback Suppression

In-car Voice Communication

Acoustic feedback

AFC NS

AVQ

AFS

1919

www.alango.com

Alango configuration auxiliary tools

Alango software packages come with convenient, graphical parameter configuration tools

allowing real-time, intuitive hands-free system tuning and performance validation

Upload parameters

to the device

Evaluate the

performance

Modify

parameters

TUNING CYCLE

20

www.alango.com

Alango has developed an unique signal logging

and monitoring tools greatly facilitating system

tuning and problem report procedures

• Recording all VCP inputs and outputs on PC

• Real time level monitoring of input/output levels

• Real time listening of any input/output channel

• Rx-Tx delay detection (correlator)

• Real time waveform/spectrogram of input/output

signals

• Simple, 2 wires (PIO+GND) connection between the

Alango Logger device and device under test

• USB connection to PC

Alango data logging and monitoring tools

Alango Logger

2 wires USB

21

www.alango.com

Don’t hesitate to contact us if you want to be our customer

or just have any comments. We are looking forward hearing

from you!

Please, send your questions, comments, thoughts, proposals

to info-il@alango.com or specifically to:

Alango Technologies Ltd.

2 Etgar St. PO Box 62

Tirat Carmel 39100 Israel

Phone numbers:

Main office: +972 4 8580 743

Fax: +972 4 8580 621

Mr. Robert Schrager (Sales enquiries):

Mr. Alex Radzishevsky (Technical enquiries):

Dr. Alexander Goldin (CEO):

Contact information

alangoaut

sales-il@alango.com

tech-il@alango.com

ceo-il@alango.com

22