siliconindia | | October 20198IN MY OPINIONpeech is the most ancient form of communication humans know. Over time, it has continued to be the preferred medium of com-munication, or at least the most efficient one, for a majority of the population. Even today, speech is the easiest, most natural and most efficient form of commu-nication humans knows. As people look for more natural ways to in-teract with machines, Voice is go-ing to be the next big step in UX.In addition to communication, humans have used sounds for a range of diagnostic pur-poses as well. Hunters listen to and use sounds to track and lure prey. Doctors listen to your heartbeat and breath-ing to evaluate your health. Mechanics listen to your vehi-cle and say `this doesn't sound right'.There has been a lot of activity in the voice domain lately. In the recent years, we have seen a rapid rise in voice-activated interfaces and audio-based content like podcasts, audio books, Alexa briefings, etc. Voice-based human-machine interfaces (Voice assistants) are at the forefront of voice technology. Hands-free, in-car voice assistants and home assistants have seen great adoption in the consumer market, and will continue to dominate.However, moving beyond just voice assistants, sound-based solutions are being built and increasingly deployed in retail, healthcare, IIoT and various other areas. Ad-vances in microphone technology, digital signal processing, machine learning, deep learning and the like are fuelling the growth of these new innovations.Sound is ubiquitous and every-thing generates sound, be it humans or machines. It characteristically carries more information (emotion, context, loudness) as compared to text and is easy to collect. This rich information is helpful in mak-ing better analysis, which wouldn't otherwise be possible.Microphones trained to listen to and classify different sounds could reshape a num-ber of industries. For example, a very practical use-case is the diagnosis of Tuberculosis based on sound of your cough. For context, it can currently only be diagnosed by a range of tests that are performed after the initial skin or blood test to confirm the presence of Tuberculosis- causing bacteria.Here are some interesting use-cases that go beyond just voice and focus on `sound'--and they are just the tip of the iceberg:1. Industrial IoTEven though a lot of sensors and IoT platforms are avail-able, deployment of IoT solutions within manufacturing industries is not frictionless for many reasons: Sensors need to be either connected or mounted on existing ma-SOUND ­ THE NEXT FRONTIERBy Suryaprakash Konanuru, CTO, Ideaspring CapitalSuryaprakash is a serial entrepreneur with over 18 years of experience as an entrepreneur, mentor, advisor and investor. He has co-founded three startups - Alopa Networks, Yos Technologies and funtoot.SSuryaprakash Konanuru, CTO
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