FURI | Spring 2022

Voice Command Object Localization with Spatial Audio and IoT Devices

Delivering spatial audio through speakers, rather than headphones that deliver audio directly to the ears, produces the issue of crosstalk, where sounds from each of the two speakers reach the opposite ear, inhibiting the spatialized effect. This research team has developed an algorithm called Xblock that solves this issue using a crosstalk cancellation technique. This project expands upon the technique to integrate voice commands over a simple Internet of Things (IoT) smart speaker infrastructure, where users can verbalize the name of a lost item and the IoT system will use spatial audio to guide them to it.