What is Artificial Intelligence Really All About? And How Does EPOS AI™ Optimize Your Audio Experience?

There’s a lot of hype around artificial intelligence and its applications within technology. It is often misunderstood; Are we talking autonomous machines that think for themselves? Or an application that with huge amounts of data and computing power can be taught to “think” and perform tasks on their own. The latter is understandably closer to the truth and this blogpost seeks to roll out clearly what Artificial Intelligence or AI is, and how EPOS engineers have developed EPOS AI™ to create an optimized audio experience for its headset users.

What is artificial intelligence?

AI refers to the ability of a computer program or application to learn by itself, and mimic human intelligence artificially. This is done by collecting massive amounts of data, sifting through it and using AI to identify patterns unseen to humans that can then be applied to specific challenges. From huge medical breakthroughs to predicting the kind of music you’d like to listen to on a Sunday afternoon, in recent years, AI has become more and more widespread. It’s even used to manage our home lives and work schedules through personal assistants like Alexa.

A closer look at AI and machine learning

With such widespread applications entwined in all aspects of our lives, how is it exactly that AI gives a machine the ability to “learn”? Machine learning began to be defined during the middle of the 20th Century and used as a tool in high-tech industries. More recently, with huge increases in computing power and access to big data, AI has become more commonplace and enabled the development of personal assistants that can predict our actions. A neural network is a common form of machine learning, made up of a series of interconnected layers of neurons, which are similar to the billions of neurons found in the human brain. Because a neural network mimics the human brain, it can be trained in largely the same way. To do this, the neural network is fed a series of data inputs and the correct desired outcome. Over time and through a process of trial and error, it continually adjusts the neurons until it learns the essentials of the training data. However, just like the human brain – these networks can make mistakes and will not always deliver the perfect outcome. But the more we train the network the more it improves.

What does all this mean for your EPOS audio devices?

So, if AI is being used in both big and small ways to revolutionize our lives, how is it being used by our expert engineers here at EPOS to ensure you get the best audio experience possible? The answer is through EPOS AI™ – a tiny but powerful network that can separate

human voices from background noise while you are on a call. This is the neural network that has been developed painstakingly over many thousands of hours and with many different real-life audio inputs. It has enabled EPOS AI™ to “learn” the difference between the user’s speech and other ambient sounds –even those of other people speaking in the background– and we don’t stop there. EPOS AI™ is an ongoing, highly advanced, deep-learning process in the EPOS sound laboratories. Audio inputs are continually being fed into the neural network to refine the technology even further. The great news for our users is that with product updates we can improve the EPOS AI™ network in your headset and optimize call clarity even further.

ADAPT 600 Series

Powered by EPOS AI™ for today’s mobile workforce

Today’s mobile, versatile workers switch between noisy open offices, airport lounges and internet cafes, taking calls in ever-changing sound environments. It’s here that EPOS AI™ and its highly tuned neural network of countless audio inputs creates a distinct advantage. Our latest flagship headset, the ground-breaking ADAPT 660 is powered by EPOS AI™ and is the world’s first UC-certified headset that incorporates a machine learning-enhanced voice pickup. Through the neural network within EPOS AI™, three beamforming directional microphones built into the ADAPT 660 are able to focus on the user’s voice by filtering out the unwanted background sounds like chattering colleagues, traffic, wind and a whole range of noises “learnt” in the EPOS sound laboratory. This improves speech intelligibility for the headset user’s listener and when combined with adaptive active noise cancellation and rich stereo sound, call clarity is enhanced on both sides of the call. This is how the ADAPT 660 ensures workers can maximize focus and productivity anytime, anywhere.

ADAPT 660

Work wherever, whenever

  • Superb call clarity powered by EPOS AI™
  • The world’s first UC-certified headset with machine learning-enhanced voice pickup
  • 3 advanced beamforming microphones focus on your speech and reduce ambient noise
  • Delivers superb speech intelligibility for your listener

Compact size, colossal clarity

EPOS AI™ is so small that the neural network can easily be built into the ADAPT 660 headset enabling it to function as an Edge AI device – meaning that the AI is incorporated as close to the user as possible. To give some perspective, EPOS AI™ is much smaller that Tiny AI that’s incorporated into smart phones. Furthermore, around 50 of EPOS AI™’s neural networks could fit easily within the memory used by a single JPG image. The super compact size is what allows EPOS AI™ to run locally within the headset and without the need for a connection such as a mobile phone.

The future of EPOS AI™

Building on an industry first with the ADAPT 660’s machine learning-enhanced voice pickup, our sound engineers continue to refine the possibilities of EPOS AI™. There is no double that in the near future a wide range of audio devices from mobile phones to headsets and earbuds will incorporate some form of AI enabling more efficient, personalized interactions. At EPOS we understand our work so far with EPOS AI™ is just the tip of the iceberg and we look forward to applying the technology further. What is safe to say, is that as we continue to explore the power of audio, we can use EPOS AI™ to maximize productive communication and enhance business performance the world over.