One of the most impressive features of the Moto X was the Touchless Control feature that was made possible by the always listening chip set. Having this feature opened the phone up to all kind of possibilities, from safer driving to locating a missing phone. Showing up in the Moto X and the Droid line, the always listening chip allowed users to say commands using the queue words “Okay Google Now”. The processor allowed for a better user experience. Touchless Control is actually one of my favorite features in the Moto X. I always hoped that we would see it come to other devices. Up until now, this chipset has been exclusive to Motorola’s newest devices. Tonight we’re hearing news that might not be the case for longer.
An audio company named Audience has been creating audio motion sensor chips. Audience’s motion audio processor is called the MQ100. This processor is battery-friendly, but very powerful. It allows for noise cancellation to be used to efficiently pick up the voice better. The MQ100 also processes movement along with audio. Also introduced with the MQ100 is VoiceQ. VoiceQ is the feature that allows the device to constantly be listening for its user.This pair up could mean for a more secure device, as well as new and never before used features. We could see something new in terms of fitness. We know that Samsung has been including fitness apps on their phones, so if this processor is used in the Galaxy S 5, we could be seeing some new features having to do with movement and voice. There are so many possibilities with this processor, we’ll just have to wait and see where it takes mobile technology.
Audience isn’t a stranger to having their audio processors used in phones. Apparently Samsung uses Audience’s processors already, however they weren’t using the new MQ100 in their last batch of flagship phones. That’s not to say that we won’t be seeing this processor in the new Galaxy S 5. According to Audience’s spokesperson in an interview with Pocket-lint, we could begin to see announcements for the mobile devices that utilize this processor within a week. While the company didn’t mention which manufacturers were going to use the new MQ100, they did mention in an example that you could say “OK Galaxy”, and the device would respond.
We are mere hours away from Samsung’s Unpacked event in Barcelona. Perhaps Samsung will announce that they did indeed utilize the MQ100 in their newest flagship device. We should be hearing more news tomorrow morning from MWC.