ID R&D boosts Wavio sound recognition software for smart home systems

Jul 16, 2019, 4:14 pm EDT | Chris Burt

Sound recognition company Wavio has partnered with voice and behavioral biometrics provider ID R&D to develop high-performance sound recognition software.

Wavio was founded by Greyson Watkins, who is profoundly deaf, after a friend’s daughter fell down stairs, and he did not hear her cries for help. Wavio intends to address this kind of situation by embedding ambient sound recognition into common applications and devices. The company will integrate ID R&D’s artificial intelligence and machine learning acoustic detection capability to improve Wavio’s technology’s accuracy and performance, and expand the number of platforms compatible with its SoundAI software.

Developers and manufacturers can implement SoundAI to add sound recognition for events such as dogs barking, sirens, coughing, glass breaking, or cries for help to smart home devices, voice assistants, robotics, and interactive products, according to the announcement.

“Wavio was highly impressed when we tested ID R&D’s software, and after learning more about ID R&D’s deep research and knowledge of voice, audio processing, and the very latest in artificial intelligence methods, we were convinced that ID R&D is the right partner to help us fulfill our mission,” comments Watkins.

ID R&D’s Acoustic Event Detection software significantly expands the range of different sound events that can be detected by SoundAI, and allows users to easily add new sound events. Wavio has also partnered with Area 23, a New York City-based healthcare agency, to develop a hardware device called See Sound to deliver sound awareness to more than 9 million households with people who are deaf or hard-of-hearing.

“At a time when we increasingly hear about the need for ‘technology for good,’ there is no better example than Wavio,” says ID R&D CEO Alexey Khitrov. “We are excited to contribute ID R&D’s AI technologies to help launch Wavio’s solution and support its goal to make sound awareness available to all.”

ID R&D raised $5.7 million in Series A funding earlier this year to grow its engineering team and find more markets for technologies.