The Krakow-based researchers could revolutionize how we talk to our devices – and to each other. The team of Konrad Kowalczyk, Ph.D., of the AGH University of Science and Technology, is developing a multi-microphone system that allows one to talk or dictate text freely even when the speaker is moving freely around the room, without the need for headphones with a microphone or traditional hands-free sets. The research is financed by the Foundation for Polish Science within the framework of the FIRST TEAM program with funds from the European Funds of the Intelligent Development Operational Programme.
Dr. Kowalczyk’s team’s research aims to develop technologies that will enable the construction of systems consisting of networks of interconnected microphones that will allow natural conversation to take place even when the speaker walks, moves away from the microphones or is in a place where factors such as noise, other voices or room reverberation interfere with traditional microphones.
This is especially important because rapidly developing technologies, such as smart homes or augmented or virtual reality, often rely precisely on voice communication between man and machine. Commands or queries are increasingly being issued for such devices not through an app, touchscreen or keyboard, but through an interface that allows natural communication by voice. The speech recognition algorithms underpinning such systems are increasingly effective, but the problem remains that the capabilities of legacy microphone systems are relatively limited when the user is not in their immediate vicinity.
A state-of-the-art smart microphone system that researchers in Krakow are working on could dramatically simplify the use of these technologies. The APDAS (Audio Processing using Distributed Acoustic Sensors) project could also give users a whole range of uses for their devices. The microphones that smart home devices are equipped with can create a single, room- or house-wide network that can, for example, perform biometric identification and localization of people in different rooms.
?Simultaneous processing of signals from several interconnected ‘smart’ devices equipped with one or more microphones will make it possible to obtain higher signal quality than in the case of the single, independently operating devices currently in use?, explained Konrad Kowalczyk, PhD, of the Faculty of Computer Science, Electronics and Telecommunications at the AGH University of Science and Technology in Krakow.
?The advantage of such a solution will be the possibility of voice control even over long distances and the free use of voice applications in the cloud without the need for audio equipment dedicated to a given application,? he added.
For the work of the Krakow team, the Foundation for Polish Science awarded a grant of nearly PLN 2 million as part of the competition in the FIRST TEAM 2017 program. The funding was increased in 2020 to enable the development of the work on the smart sound processing system and its commercialization. The FIRST TEAM program is implemented by the Foundation for Polish Science with EU funds from the European Regional Development Fund under the Intelligent Development Operational Programme, Axis IV: Increasing the scientific and research potential, Measure 4.4 Increasing the personnel potential of the R&D sector.
Konrad Kowalczyk, PhD (Eng.), is a graduate of the Electronics and Telecommunications Faculty at AGH University of Science and Technology. He received his doctoral degree from the Faulty of Electronics, Electrical Engineering and Computer Science at the Royal University of Belfast in the UK, and his postdoctoral degree in the Faculty of Technical Informatics and Telecommunications at the AGH University of Science and Technology. He has had internships at Stanford University and York University. He conducted research work in Germany for five and a half years, first at the University of Erlangen-Nuremberg and then at the Fraunhofer Institute and the International Audio Laboratories in Erlangen. Since 2020, he has headed the AGH Signal Processing Group. He serves as editor of the IEEE Signal Processing Letters journal. He is a winner of the Top 500 Innovators program at the University of Cambridge and a recipient of the Ministry of Science and Higher Education scholarship for outstanding young scientists. In 2021, he was awarded the Prime Minister’s Award for Outstanding Scientific Achievement.
The APDAS project is being carried out with international partners, including the University of Valencia in Spain, the Catholic University of Leuven in Belgium and Johns Hopkins University in the US. Dr. Kowalczyk’s team is also working on new applications of their own technologies to make life easier. Modern sound signal processing techniques, for example, can be used to build a new generation of hearing aids, allowing the user to hear sounds clearly, even if the source is a considerable distance away. Achievements by members of the team formed with support from the Foundation for Polish Science include the first and second place in the 2019 and 2021 IEEE Signal Processing Cup competitions, where algorithms for audio localization of injured persons for rescue drones and algorithms for automatic configuration of intelligent reflective surfaces in 6G networks were developed, as well as a Fulbright Junior Scholarship for one-year research at Johns Hopkins University.
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The Foundation for Polish Science has existed since 1991 and is an independent, self-funded, non-profit, non-governmental institution that pursues the mission of supporting science. It is Poland’s largest non-budgetary source of science funding. The statutory goals of the Foundation include supporting outstanding scientists and research teams and working to transfer scientific achievements to business practice. The Foundation implements them by awarding individual prizes and scholarships for scientists, granting subsidies for implementation of scientific achievements into business practice, as well as other forms of support for important undertakings serving science (such as: publishing programs, conferences). The Foundation is also committed to supporting international scientific cooperation and enhancing the scientific independence of the younger generation of scholars.
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