The DTIF project
Some background
In Dec 2019, SoapBox Labs received funding under The Disruptive Technologies Innovation Fund (DTIF). In conjunction with consortium partners XPERI and the National University of Ireland, Galway (NUIG), this funding will allow SoapBox Labs to embark on a new and truly disruptive AI project: Data-center Audio/Visual Intelligence on-Device (DAVID).
DAVID is an on-device multi-modal AI platform, encompassing both voice and vision, that offers the user complete privacy while driving deeper and more natural interactions with smart toys, games, AR/VR, and smart home devices.
The smart toy market represents a huge opportunity for SoapBox Labs but to win it we must first deliver our innovative kids’ voice technology as an embedded solution, so that no data goes to the cloud for processing and kids’ privacy is completely protected.
Dr. Patricia Scanlon, Founder & Executive Chair, SoapBox Labs
Working closely with our project and industry partners over the last 18 months we have developed a deeper understanding of the innovation happening in the embedded chip market – which is evolving rapidly with chip prices falling and chip capacity increasing – the technical challenges of delivering on-device voice and vision experiences for kids, and the market expectations relative to these offerings.
Lighthouse customer proof of concepts
SoapBox has delivered a number of POCs in the first 18 months of this project that have allowed us to answer questions relating to toy companies’ ability and appetite for embedded chips, and their privacy requirements – on-device or a combined chip/online interaction.
Early on-device and embedded POCs:
Keyword spotting (KWS)
Wakeword (WW)
Control and command
Voice activity detection (VAD)
Multimodal (Audio-visual) interactions
For more on this collaboration…
