nRFready Smart Remote 3 for nRF52 Series, equipped with excellent voice input performance

Nordic Semiconductor (Country Manager for Korea Choi Soo-chul) announced that it is supplying the 'nRFready Smart Remote 3 for nRF52 Series' reference design, which features best-in-class processing capabilities.

This reference design is based on Nordic's latest nRF52832 Bluetooth® Low Energy SoC (System-on-Chip) and combines excellent voice input performance with ultra-low power consumption characteristics.

This nRFready Smart Remote 3 reference design for the nRF52 series, aimed at OEM/ODM and manufacturers of remote controls for smart TVs, set-top boxes, and digital media devices, is designed to provide rich features and an intuitive, excellent user experience.



This single-chip-based reference design features state-of-the-art voice input capabilities that enable search and control functions using voice recognition, utilizing two PDM microphones with echo and noise cancellation functions. It also includes a digital microphone input option, a 6-axis motion sensor 'Air-Mouse' for physical gesture control, a multi-touch trackpad, a programmable keyboard button matrix, support for existing IR hardware, and NFC touch-to-fair (software to be announced later) familiar to users, as well as an onboard buzzer implementing the Bluetooth Low Energy protocol FMP (Find Me Profile).

John Leonard, Product Marketing Manager at Nordic Semiconductor, stated, “We have expanded the audio capabilities of the existing nRFready Smart Remote 3 reference design for the nRF51 series by supporting the nRF52832’s excellent processing performance and on-chip PDM microphones,” adding, “The newly announced reference design includes two digital microphones as well as providing all the necessary signal processing capabilities to enable the latest voice input search and control functions for home media devices on a single chip.”

In addition, John Leonard stated, “By combining the nRF52832’s fundamental pure computing power with a unique set of peripherals, we were able to optimize all key functions of the remote control reference design and effectively handle audio noise cancellation and audio compression related to voice data,” and explained, “This enables much cleaner voice signal sampling, significantly reduces on-air data through this compression method, and provides power saving benefits.”

The nRFready Smart Remote 3 for the nRF52 series supports various widely used audio compression formats, including Opus, Broadvoice™, and ADPCM. In addition, it is fully equipped with all the embedded software necessary to implement voice remote control designs, including host-side support software for Linux boxes.

John Leonard added, “The embedded software is available through an optional configuration layer (Wizard) that utilizes an excellent modular format to simplify and adjust the development of all parameters for the advanced Bluetooth Low Energy remote by simply clicking a list of checkbox options, thereby shortening time-to-market and minimizing unnecessary design risks. This allows for a wide range of functions, from determining key features such as whether to use a trackpad or motion sensing, to specifying low-level settings like Bluetooth Low Energy connection intervals or attempting connection reassignment. At the same time, all software modules can be manually adjusted or customized by developers according to their desired functions.”