How can smart speakers achieve true “high energy”?

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How can smart speakers achieve true “high energy”? [Copy link]

In the near future, smart speakers and home assistants will be everywhere. According to Juniper Research, more than 70 million U.S. households will have at least one smart speaker by 2022. Since they were first introduced in 2015, the capabilities of smart speakers have increased significantly. The ability to deliver audio content to the user remains the primary reason consumers add a speaker (or multiple speakers) to their home. These speakers come with a voice-activated digital assistant that “communicates” with the user. Other physical controls on the speaker must remain simple while still enabling the desired functionality. These controls include a simple power on/off button, a volume control slider/wheel, buttons to skip or repeat tracks, microphone mute buttons, etc. Voice has become popular as a means of interacting with devices, thanks to voice wake-up commands such as “Alexa,” “Hey Siri,” and “OK Google.” One of the main reasons smart speakers have quickly become popular with consumers is that they radically simplify the process of interacting with them. There are very few buttons for basic functions, and most interactions are performed through voice commands. Leonardo da Vinci once said, "Simplicity is the ultimate in sophistication." Applying this design philosophy in the 21st century means that the human-machine interface should be as simple as possible and the design style needs to be intuitive. In addition, since voice is the preferred interface, designers must highlight clear differentiation in the interface design process.

Figure 1: Typical smart speaker with basic HMI

Capacitive touch capabilities allow designers to incorporate unique features into their product designs and make their products stand out in a crowded market. This article describes how to achieve differentiated functionality using Texas Instruments (TI) MSP430 microcontrollers (MCUs) with CapTIvate touch technology. MSP430 Capacitive Touch Sensing MCUs with CapTIvate Technology TI MSP430 MCUs with CapTIvate technology enable touch designs with an integrated, feature-rich capacitive sensing peripheral. The peripheral features a highly reliable, ultra-low power design without sacrificing touch functionality, making it ideal for battery-powered applications with sleek HMIs. The configurable CapTIvate peripheral also supports both self-capacitance and mutual-capacitance measurement topologies, allowing designers to leverage the benefits of each topology in the same unique interface design with a single MCU. The full-featured, programmable MCU with high-decibel noise tolerance and a comprehensive ecosystem make the MSP430 MCUs with CapTIvate technology stand out from the crowd of capacitive touch controllers. MSP430 CapTIvate MCUs can significantly increase the potential functionality in smart speakers by: Mechanical Button Replacement As consumers become more comfortable with capacitive touch buttons on products, embedded system designers are beginning to realize the benefits of using capacitive touch buttons instead of mechanical buttons. For example, you can replace four buttons on a smart speaker with capacitive touch buttons, using a single MSP430 CapTIvate MCU to sense each capacitive touch button. This can significantly save the cost of buttons, the cost of manufacturing the top surface to cut out the buttons, and simplify the assembly process. Advanced Inputs For example, sliders and wheels MSP430 CapTIvate MCUs enable system designers to use advanced input mechanisms, such as sliders and wheels, to control different functions on a device. For example, a tap can turn the microphone on and off, a slide can skip or rewind a track, and a rotational touch motion on a wheel sensor can increase or decrease the volume. Without a capacitive sensing controller, these gesture mechanisms cannot be supported. Proximity Detection MSP430 CapTIvate MCUs also feature proximity detection, which enables the LED ring to turn on and/or greet the user as soon as the user places their hand near the device. This technology provides an amazing enhancement to smart speaker designs. Improved Aesthetics Not having to cut button holes on the top surface is another significant benefit: designers have the flexibility to design in a more aesthetically pleasing surface. It doesn’t even have to keep the surface perfectly flat; creative designers can experiment with different shapes and materials to come up with designs that enhance functionality and appeal for maximum market acceptance. MSP430 CapTIvate MCUs can implement touch on metal, touch on glass, touch on wood, and touch on plastic. Improving Reliability The reliability of touch and proximity detection is a key element in maintaining the simplicity of smart speaker HMIs. Many noise sources pose a serious challenge to reliably detecting capacitive touch. Smart speakers often have Wi-Fi and/or Bluetooth connectivity, which can increase electromagnetic noise. MSP430 CapTIvate MCUs combine signal processing algorithms, low-noise hardware design, and noise avoidance techniques to ensure excellent noise immunity. CapTIvate technology uses an integrator-based charge-transfer engine with a frequency-hopping oscillator, parasitic capacitance correction, and spread-spectrum clock modulation to improve noise immunity. The CapTIvate software library provides several signal processing algorithms to improve the robustness of touch or proximity detection. This includes multi-tone algorithms, infinite impulse response (IIR) filters, anti-bounce mechanisms, and dynamic threshold adjustment. Figure 2: Elegant HMIs that stand out in the marketplaceBy using traditional Bluetooth speakers in the bathroom, kitchen, and poolside, people have been using them for some time. We expect smart speakers to follow suit, but that means increasing their moisture tolerance. Fully sealing the top surface of a capacitive touch controller does work, so devices with mechanical buttons must take costly steps to be moisture tolerant. MSP430 CapTIvateThe MCU can reliably detect touch or proximity in the presence of moisture. Low Power Smart speakers with Wi-Fi connectivity are typically powered from a wall outlet, so they don’t usually meet low power requirements. However, from a user’s perspective, this limits the speaker’s portability. Smart speakers are battery-powered, requiring a redesign of the device architecture and more complex power management schemes to extend battery life. In fact, some manufacturers have produced portable smart speakers with a run time of about 10 to 12 hours on a rechargeable battery. The capacitive touch controllers in these devices need to consume as little power as possible while still being able to detect touch or proximity. The MSP430 MCU with CapTIvate technology is the lowest power capacitive touch sensing solution, with less than 2μA/avg per button. The MCU also supports wake-on-touch or wake-on-proximity, so you can put most power-hungry processors into deep low-power modes until activated by a touch or proximity event. In addition, our new CapTIvate MCU product line brings capacitive sensing capabilities to cost-sensitive applications. The new MSP430FR2522 and MSP430FR2512 MCUs with integrated capacitive touch provide up to 16 buttons and proximity sensing for voice-activated home automation systems, audio applications, and more. The devices are designed for cost-sensitive applications. Key Features and Benefits of the New CapTIvate Touch MCUs: Affordable Capacitive Touch MCUs Designers can now add the benefits of capacitive touch and proximity sensing to cost-sensitive applications using the MSP430FR2522 / MSP430FR2512 MCUs. Shorten time to market Developers can quickly evaluate capacitive sensing for their applications with a broad range of MCUs, easy-to-use tools, software, reference designs and documentation through the online CapTIvate Technical Guide and TI E2E community support. Brainstorm your own application. Use your creativity and create your own masterpiece in just 5 minutes using the CapTIvate Design Center. For quick evaluation, the CAPKEYPAD BoosterPack plug-in module is now available. The BoosterPack module can be used with a LaunchPad development kit, a CapTIvate development kit (MSP-CAPTFR2633) or a CapTIvate programmer board (CAPTIVATE-PGMR) for maximum flexibility. The integrated capacitive sensing technology is part of a complete MCU with an on-chip 10-bit SAR ADC, GPIO, timers, multiple serial interfaces (I2C, SPI, UART) and is available in TSSOP and QFN packages. Conclusion TI MSP430 MCUs with CapTIvate technology employ the most noise-immune capacitive sensing technology available today. The MCU combines button, slider, wheel and proximity sensing interface configurations with ultra-low power consumption to create compelling yet simple interfaces. Creative designers can use this technology to enhance their upcoming smart speaker designs, building on their already hugely successful global reach.