Design Steps and

Design Options
APPLICATION NOTE

This document outlines the various design steps and design options available to a product designer who is
using an Interactive Speech chip. Each design step is detailed with various considerations that are important in
creating a high quality and high accuracy speech recognition product.
The design of a complete product using the Interactive Speech™ line of chips includes the following six steps:

1. Creation of product specification

2. Review of product specification by Sensory (Recommended)
3. Selection of product developer
4. Development of prototype
5. Hardware review of product
6. Manufacture of product

The first four steps will take approximately 4-6 months to complete. Each of the design steps discussed relate
only to integrating speech into the consumer product, and do not cover other product design issues associated
with the consumer product.

To assist customers, Sensory offers a variety of services and resources to help customers through each of the
various design steps. A description of Sensory services can be found in the last section of this document.
Creating a Product Specification
A detailed specification for the product serves as the guide for using the speech capabilities of an Interactive
TM
Speech chip. It is extremely important to create a complete product specification to avoid potential delays that
can occur later on in product development.
A detailed product specification should contain the following information:

• An outline of the product concept

• An exact description of what the product does, usually in the form of a flow chart
• An exact description of what the product interacts with (lights, switches…)
•
TM
Selection of the appropriate Interactive Speech chip
• Documentation of the speech recognition vocabulary (if any)
• Documentation of the speech synthesis vocabulary (if any)

Although Sensory can provide services to help designers better define product concepts and identify speech
needs, the customer is responsible for the final product specification.

Sensory Review of Specification

It is highly recommended that customers send in preliminary product specifications to Sensory for review.
Sensory’s Application Engineers have considerable experience incorporating speech recognition into a variety
of products and can help identify potential problems that are often overlooked in incorporating speech
recognition and speech synthesis.

This stage of development will finalize which Interactive Speech™ IC is best for the product and identify the
additional electronic components needed to implement the product.
Selecting an Interactive Speech™ Developer
Customers can choose from several options:

1. Customers can develop the product themselves

2. Customers can contract development services from Sensory
3. Customers can use an independent development house

© 2001 Sensory Inc. P/N 80-0079-D 1

Design Steps and Design Options Application Notes

For designs with the RSC-200/264T, and RSC-300/364 Sensory offers dedicated Development Kits for each IC.
Each Development Kit provides all software and hardware tools needed for experienced product developers to
integrate Interactive Speech™ chips into a consumer product. Products using Voice Extreme™ can be created
using a low-cost development kit for developers with basic C-language experience. Applications using Voice
TM TM
Dialer 364 or Voice Direct 364 do not require a development kit, but will in most cases require the
programming of an external microcontroller.

If Sensory is chosen to develop a product using an RSC chip, the following services are available:

Speaker-Independent recognition sets, speech synthesis files, and music synthesis files.

Application coding of the RSC.

Hardware design of the electronics associated with the Sensory chips.

Sensory will provide any requested speaker-independent recognition sets, speech synthesis files, and music
synthesis files, even if Sensory is not providing software development services.

The following table outlines the steps involved in developing a product and the responsibilities of those parties
involved with product development.

Action Sensory As Developer Other Developer

Product definition Sensory assists customer* Customer or developer
Sensory Sensory assists customer or
Specification review
developer
Speaker-independent recognition sets Sensory Sensory
Speaker-dependent recognition sets No development required No development required
Sensory Sensory, or developer with speech
Speech Synthesis
development kit**
Music Sensory Sensory
Application coding Sensory Developer with RSC development kit
Circuit diagram Sensory Developer
Bill of materials Sensory Developer or manufacturer
PCB layout Manufacturer Developer or manufacturer
Manufacturing of product Manufacturer Manufacturer

* Sensory is not responsible for any deliverables. Also, note that “development” is not the same as “project management”; Sensory is not a
manufacturer nor can we manage or be responsible for the efforts of manufacturers.

Product Prototype Development

After the product is properly defined, a prototype can be built. A functioning prototype is important for ensuring
that the product will work as envisioned. There is often some fine-tuning required after a prototype is built and
tested. The amount of time needed to revise a product depends on the type of change required. Small changes
to the product’s application flow can usually be made relatively quickly. Changes to the product’s speech
synthesis are more time consuming and can take several weeks, or longer, if a new recording session is
required. (This does not apply if Sensory’s Quick Synthesis application is used for creating speech.) Changes to
speaker-independent recognition words, although sometimes simple, may take months if new words need to be
recorded for the set (each word requires approximately 500 recorded voices).
Hardware Review (Important)
Speech recognition circuitry is extremely sensitive to noise. Therefore, proper design and PCB layout is
essential. Before going to production, the developer should carefully check out the hardware design as well as
the microphone housing. Please refer to Design Notes for Hardware Design for the steps to review a hardware
design. Sensory can also provide hardware review- please see your application engineer for more detail.

2 P/N 80-0079-D © 2001 Sensory Inc.

Application Notes Design Steps and Design Options

Product Manufacturing
After the prototype is completed and accepted, three steps must still be completed:

Select Chip Packaging. Prices quoted by Sensory are for chips in die form, unless otherwise specified.
The RSC-200/264T is currently available in die form only, whereas all other chips are offered in die and
64-lead TQFP. PLCC versions of all RSC ICs are available for use with Development Kits.

Order chips. Sensory has a typical order lead time of three months. Custom-masked versions of ICs
obviously cannot be stocked. All code must be frozen prior to ordering custom masked chips. Once
masked, the code on these chips cannot be changed.

Start product manufacturing. This begins once chips are received from Sensory and all program code
is available.
Sample Timeline for Product Development
The following is a timeline for product development when Sensory and the customer work together to create a
new product.

Product Definition

Application flow defined

Recognition Vocabulary
proposed

Synthesis vocabulary Specification
proposed complete Specification Review by Sensory

Vocabulary reviewed

Product design reviewed, if
requested
Quote
Suggestion provided
Prototype Developed accepted

Vocabulary recorded

Neural network trained

Speech compressed

Code written & PCB designed
Chip Production & Test
Prototype
accepted
Custom mask created (if
Timetable: 1-3 months
necessary)

Wafer produced

Wafer probed and diced

Chips are packaged (if
Production requested)
complete
Product Manufacturing
(by customer)

Sensory Support Services

Sensory offers many services to support development of those products using the Interactive Speech ™ line of
chips. For each service, there is a required amount of information about the product that the product designer
must provide to Sensory.
Application Programming
Application programming for the RSC is available at hourly labor rates. Project quotes are also available.
Circuit Design
Circuit design services are available at hourly rates to design the circuitry using an Interactive Speech™ chip.
Project quotes are also available.
Other Support Services
Product design, product definition and any other support services are available by arrangement.

© 2001 Sensory Inc. P/N 80-0079-D 3

The Interactive Speech™ Product Line
The Interactive Speech line of ICs and software was developed to “bring life to products” through advanced speech
recognition and audio technology. The Interactive Speech Product Line was designed for consumer telephony products and
cost-sensitive consumer electronic applications such as home electronics, personal security, and personal communication.
The product line includes award-winning RSC-series general-purpose microcontrollers and tools plus a line of easy-to-
implement chips that can be pin-configured or controlled by an external host microcontroller. Sensory’s software
technologies run on a variety of microcontrollers and DSPs.
RSC Microcontrollers and Tools
The RSC family of microcontroller (RSC-300/364) are low-cost 8-bit microcontrollers designed for use in
consumer electronics. All members of the RSC family are fully integrated and include A/D, pre-amplifier, D/A,
ROM (RSC-364), and RAM circuitry. The RSC family can perform a full range of speech/audio functions
including speech recognition, speaker verification, speech and music synthesis, and voice record/playback.
The family is supported with a complete suite of tools and development kits.
Application Specific Standard Products (ASSPs)
• Voice Direct™ 364 provides inexpensive speaker-dependent speech recognition and speech synthesis. This easy-to-use,
pin-configurable chip requires no custom programming and can recognize up to 60 trained words in slave mode, and 15
words in stand-alone mode. Ideal for speaker-dependent command and control of household consumer products, Voice
Direct* 364 is part of a complete product line that includes the IC, module, and Voice Direct 364 Speech Recognition Kit.
• Voice Extreme™ simplifies the creation of fully custom speech-enabled products by offering developers the
capability of programming the chip in a high-level C-like language. Program code, speech data, and even record
and playback information can be stored on a single off-chip Flash memory. Based on Sensory's RSC-364
speech processor, Voice Extreme includes a highly efficient on-chip code interpreter, and is supported by a
comprehensive suite of low-cost development tools.
Software and Technology
• Voice Activation™ micro footprint software provides advanced speech technology on a variety of microcontroller
and DSP platforms. A flexible design with a broad range of technologies allows manufacturers to easily integrate
speech functionality into consumer electronic products.
• Fluent Speech™ small footprint software recognizes up to 50,000 words; offers Animated Speech with the ability to
automate enunciation and articulation; performs text-to-speech synthesis in either male or female voices; provides noise and
echo cancellation, performs Wordspotting for natural language usage; offers telephone barge-in; and provides continuous
digit recognition.

Important notices
Reasonable efforts have been made to verify the accuracy of information contained herein, however no guarantee can be
made of accuracy or applicability. Sensory reserves the right to change any specification or description contained herein.
Sensory reserves the right to make changes to or to discontinue any product or service identified in this publication at any
time without notice in order to improve design and supply the best possible product. Sensory does not assume responsibility
for use of any circuitry other than circuitry entirely embodied in a Sensory product. Information contained herein is provided
gratuitously and without liability to any user. Reasonable efforts have been made to verify the accuracy of this information
but no guarantee whatsoever is given as to the accuracy or as to its applicability to particular uses. Applications described in
this data sheet are for illustrative purposes only, and Sensory makes no warranties or representations that the RSC series of
products will be suitable for such applications. In every instance, it must be the responsibility of the user to determine the
suitability of the products for each application. Sensory products are not authorized for use as critical components in life
support devices or systems. Sensory conveys no license or title, either expressed or implied, under any patent, copyright, or
mask work right to the RSC series of products, and Sensory makes balance between recognition and synthesis no
warranties or representations that the RSC series of products are free from patent, copyright, or mask work right
infringement, unless otherwise specified. Nothing contained herein shall be construed as a recommendation to use any
product in violation of existing patents or other rights of third parties. The sale of any Sensory product is subject to all
Sensory Terms and Conditions of Sales and Sales Policies.

© 2001 SENSORY, INC. ALL RIGHT RESERVED.

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Trademark Office.
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