May 11, 2012, Seoul – STMicroelectronics (NYSE: STM), a global semiconductor company in various electronic device applications, announced that it will play a pivotal role in the 'Distance Speech Interaction for Robust Home Applications (DIRHA)' project based on its world-class MEMS microphone and audio processing capabilities.

The DIRHA project is a three-year plan to research and develop prototype solutions for human-machine voice recognition interactions in future smart homes. In particular, it focuses on resolving long-distance voice recognition difficulties that occur in homes due to various noises or when multiple people speak simultaneously. It aims to create an extensive and constant voice recognition space where the system can automatically capture voice from a distance without the user having to speak directly into a microphone, regardless of where the user is in the house.

ST’s MEMS microphones, which play a key role in this project, possess physical and acoustic parameters that perfectly meet the demanding requirements of distant-speech interaction systems. Furthermore, their compact form factor allows the entire microphone array to be embedded in walls, desks, or voice recognition devices for home automation. Thanks to their superior acoustic characteristics and advanced signal processing technologies, they are capable of recognizing and understanding a user's voice from several meters away, even in environments where music or the sounds of others interfere.

Research into long-distance voice-based interaction technology is expected to bring significant changes not only to the way humans interact with technology but also to users with limited mobility, such as the elderly and people with disabilities. Furthermore, it can be utilized not only in home environments but also in robotics, telepresence, surveillance, and industrial automation.

The DIRHA program plans to invest a total of 4.8 million euros to research various related projects over a period of 36 months. Key research areas include multi-channel acoustic processing, far-field speech recognition and understanding, user identification and verification, and speech conversation management for four languages: German, Greek, Italian, and Portuguese. The final prototypes will be applied to pilot test scenarios and evaluated by actual users.

In addition to STMicroelectronics, the DIRHA project involves the Italian research firm Fondazione Bruno Kessler, which is in charge of overall management; the Athena Research and Innovation Center in Information Communication & Knowledge Technologies in Athens, Greece; the Italian housing and building automation company DomoticArea; the Portuguese IT, communication, and electronics research institute INESC ID (Instituto de Engenharia de Sistemas e Computatores, Investigacae e Desenvolvimento em Lisboa); New Amuse in Italy; and the Technical University of Graz in Austria.