Qualcomm Inc. has acquired San Diego-based noise reduction technology developer SoftMax Inc. to bring on board leading-edge, multi-microphone noise suppression and echo cancellation expertise. Thus, broadening the audio and voice capabilities of its products for integration into mobile handsets, Bluetooth headsets, VoIP phones and notebook PCs.

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“The acquisition of SoftMax will allow new opportunities for our customers to differentiate themselves by providing a superior level of voice quality to end users,” said Sanjay K. Jha, Qualcomm’s CEO and president of Qualcomm CDMA Technologies. “With the acquisition of SoftMax, our solutions will deliver advanced voice capabilities for handsets, Bluetooth headsets and other consumer devices, noted Jha.”

SoftMax's leading-edge voice algorithms for signal separation, echo cancellation and signal processing have enabled some of the latest wireless devices on the market to separate a speaker's voice from various background noises. The result is a dramatic improvement in voice quality, providing significant differentiation for the end product. These technology benefits have led to several key partnerships and implementations with industry-leading handset and Bluetooth headset OEMs using dual-microphone designs. For instance, early this year, Broadcom began offering SoftMax's noise reduction technology on its Bluetooth headset platform.

“SoftMax has always focused on the interactions between people and technology, and our SoftMax Signal Separation platform has solved real-world problems for products such as mobile phones and Bluetooth headsets,” said Te-Won Lee, president and chief technology officer of SoftMax. “As part of Qualcomm, we now have the ability to broaden our scope and enhance speech quality for consumers around the world more than ever before.”

However, Qualcomm is not alone with this technology. Motorola has developed what it calls CrystalTalk. By adapting the device’s sound characteristics to improve intelligibility and articulation, CrystalTalk maximizes speech clarity in noisy environments. Currently, CrystalTalk technology can be integrated into Motorola UMTS and GSM handsets and is in the process of development into CDMA handsets.