Overview

Since the Voice Tracker array microphone can pick up talker throughout the entire room, it has often been used for conferencing applications

It became clear from customer feedback that incorporation of a high-quality acoustic echo cancellation (AEC) algorithm would broaden the Voice Tracker's application by enabling full duplex VoIP based conferencing at a fraction of the cost of conventional conferencing systems.

The addition of a high-quality AEC algorithm to our internal DSP is the main differentiating feature of the Voice Tracker II ™ Array Microphone, but it has several other attributes as well.

Turns inexpensive VoIP based telephony systems like Skype and Adobe Connect into Conferencing tools.

A crucial audio requirement for conferencing is the elimination of acoustic echo (sound from the far end talker picked up by the open mic and sent back). The Voice Tracker II ™ Array Microphone’s internal AEC algorithm provides performance that rivals or exceeds that of AEC boxes costing several thousand dollars. Connect the Voice Tracker II ™ Array Microphone to your PC based VoIP software and eliminate the need to use headphones; all the near end talkers will be heard, even if they talk softly or are far away from the mic, and the far end talker will hear no echo. 

Audio Spectrums for AECAcoustic Echo occurs when an open mic picks up a far end talker (from the loudspeaker) and sends it back to the far end talker (as an echo). In the above charts, the bottom chart shows the audio from near end and far end talkers transmitted by the Voice Tracker II with acoustic echo cancellation off. The top chart shows a similar audio transmission with the AEC turned on. Output recording of the Voice Tracker II with AEC off. Output recording of the Voice Tracker II with AEC on 

 Improved Portability

The Voice Tracker II™ is significantly smaller than the Voice Tracker I. The Voice Tracker II’s primary audio output is USB and it is powered by its USB connection, eliminating the need to be connected to wall power. Not only does this remove the need to carry the wall power converter, it eliminates the need to have different wall power converters for different countries.

Talker Location Signal

Since the Voice Tracker automatically and electronically steers a listening beam to the active talker, it knows the location of the talker. In the Voice Tracker II ™ this information is made available outside the DSP as a RS 232 serial word through a DB-9 Jack. A sophisticated customer can use this information to point a camera, or turn the head of a robot toward the talker. Note that Acoustic Magic does not provide any algorithms for the use of the location information.