From Sound Capture to Sound Intelligence
Over the last decade, the audio market has quietly become one of the fastest-evolving segments in consumer and embedded electronics. What began as simple sound capture for communication and entertainment has now expanded into an ecosystem where voice, context, and awareness define user interaction.
Hearables alone are approaching half a billion units shipped annually, while smart speakers, AR/VR glasses, doorbells, and in-car assistants continue to grow at double-digit rates. Every one of these devices listens continuously, interprets sound, and reacts instantly — but the intelligence that powers these interactions is still fragmented.
The Fragmented Landscape
Today's audio landscape is split between two extremes:
- Tiny wake-word coprocessors that perform a single low-power task, such as detecting "Hey Assistant," but cannot understand phrases, context, or environmental events.
- Large multi-core SoCs and DSP platforms that can perform speech recognition or beamforming, but at the cost of power, heat, latency, and dependence on the cloud.
This fragmentation has slowed true innovation. Battery-powered devices such as earbuds, smart glasses, and wearables can’t sustain the power demands of multi-milliwatt SoCs, while cloud-based processing introduces concerns around privacy, latency, reliability, and cost. The result is a widening gap between what users expect — intelligent, real-time, and private voice experiences — and what manufacturers can feasibly deliver with today’s architectures.
What’s Missing
Edge Intelligence
Process sound and understand context locally without constant connectivity, enabling real-time responses.
Always-On Awareness
Continuous monitoring for speech, safety sounds, and health cues while maintaining ultra-low power consumption.
Privacy-First Design
On-device processing ensures personal audio data never leaves your device, eliminating privacy concerns.
Cross-Language Communication
Seamless translation across 20+ languages without cloud dependency, breaking down communication barriers.
Immersive Audio
Real-time spatial rendering and head tracking create truly immersive experiences in AR/VR and entertainment.
Struent’s Audio Vision: Bridging the Gap Between Wake-word and Intelligence
Struent's audio products are designed to address this gap. Our vision is to make audio intelligence as ubiquitous and efficient as hearing itself — present in every device, always on, and always private.
Vision: The Future of Audio
The future of audio lies in Edge AI — where microphones, sensors, and processors collaborate to understand sound in context. Devices will no longer just hear; they’ll interpret tone, emotion, urgency, and even health cues.
Real-World Applications
Cars will sense driver fatigue or detect a siren before the driver reacts. Earbuds will automatically reduce volume when danger approaches. Smart glasses will translate conversations in real time, enabling seamless human–machine interaction.
Architecture Principles
In this era, success won’t be defined by TOPS, but by efficiency, responsiveness, and trust. The winning designs will merge low-power processing, smart inference, and secure on-device decisions — seamlessly integrated into digital audio pipelines.
Intelligent Sound Processing For Next-Gen Devices
Edge-AI Audio Coprocessor
STRU-ACP-01-ES | Always-On Awareness
A miniature attach chip delivering sub-milliwatt always-on awareness. It listens continuously for wake-words, safety sounds, and wellness cues without waking the host SoC.
Edge-AI Audio Processor
STRU-AP-01-ES | Advanced Intelligence
A high-performance hybrid DSP+NPU audio intelligence engine designed for far-field voice and advanced AI workloads with transformer-class neural inference.
Why Struent's Approach Matters
Power Efficiency
Runs meaningful AI in microwatts to milliwatts — suitable for true always-on operation.
Privacy & Security
Processes sensitive audio locally using secure enclaves and encrypted data paths.
Scalability
From $2 attach coprocessors to $8 full processors, covering both mass-volume and high-end markets.
Feature Depth
Goes beyond speech — includes safety, wellness, translation, and spatial context.
OEM Simplicity
Digital-only front end, open SDK (ONNX/TFLite), and flexible SiP or attach options.
From the smallest earbud to the largest vehicle cabin, Struent's Edge-AI Audio Coprocessor and Processor form the foundation of a new generation of safer, healthier, and more human-aware devices.