PrivacyMic, the Smart Speaker That Doesn t Eavesdrop
UM researchers developed a system that enables devices to understand what s happening in your home respond without listening to you.
A prototype PrivacyMic. (ð·: University of Michigan / YouTube)
A team of University of Michigan researchers has developed a prototype system dedicated to privacy: a smart speaker that doesn t pick up or record audible sound but still informs a smart home or listens for the signal that would turn on a smart speaker. With an estimated 320 million microphones worldwide always listening to pick out our commands, this is an important step in revamping smart tech to protect user privacy; with the PrivacyMic, smart systems can understand what is happening in your home respond without listening to your conversations.
‘PrivacyMic’: For a smart speaker that doesn’t eavesdrop
Microphones are perhaps the most common electronic sensor in the world, with an estimated 320 million listening for our commands in the world’s smart speakers. The trouble is that they’re capable of hearing everything else, too.
But now, a team of University of Michigan researchers has developed a system that can inform a smart home or listen for the signal that would turn on a smart speaker without eavesdropping on audible sound.
The key to the device, called PrivacyMic, is ultrasonic sound at frequencies above the range of human hearing. Running dishwashers, computer monitors, even finger snaps, all generate ultrasonic sounds, which have a frequency of 20 kilohertz or higher. We can’t hear them but dogs, cats and PrivacyMic can.
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Microphones are perhaps the most common electronic sensor in the world, with an estimated 320 million listening for our commands in the world’s smart speakers. The trouble is that they’re capable of hearing everything else, too.
But now, a team of University of Michigan researchers has developed a system that can inform a smart home or listen for the signal that would turn on a smart speaker without eavesdropping on audible sound.
The key to the device, called PrivacyMic, is ultrasonic sound at frequencies above the range of human hearing. Running dishwashers, computer monitors, even finger snaps, all generate ultrasonic sounds, which have a frequency of 20 kilohertz or higher. We can’t hear them but dogs, cats and PrivacyMic can.