Lantronix Empowers Whisper to Reimagine Hearing With AI Hearing System

IRVINE, Calif., May 20, 2021 (GLOBE NEWSWIRE) -- Lantronix Inc. (NASDAQ: LTRX), a global provider of secure turnkey solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Remote Environment Management (REM) offering Software as a Service (SaaS), connectivity services, engineering services and intelligent hardware, today announced that its Open-Q 820 µSOM was used in the development of the Whisper Hearing System. Created by San Francisco-based Whisper, the Whisper Hearing System is a learning hearing aid that gets better over time and uses artificial intelligence to process sound.

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After seeing family members struggle with hearing loss, the co-founders of Whisper decided to reinvent the way hearing systems work by utilizing artificial intelligence, machine learning and powerful processing. Their goal was to use technology to help users hear better and to use machine learning to improve the system over time.

“Utilizing Lantronix Open-Q 820 µSOM, we were able to create the Whisper Hearing System, giving people with hearing loss a technologically advanced way to hear better,” said Shlomo Zippel, Co-Founder of Whisper.

Challenge: Reimagine Hearing Systems With Advanced Technology
Challenges in creating the Whisper hearing aids included:

• Reducing the latency between the actual sound and when it reaches the user’s ears so that speech is more intelligible, as even small delays make speech less understandable.
• Providing the processing power needed to extract speech from background noise
• Delivering big capabilities in a very small and portable form factor
  

Solution: Lantronix Open-Q 820 µSOM

Like a traditional hearing aid, the Whisper Hearing System has earpieces with tiny microphones. What makes it unique is the pocket-sized power and intelligence of the Whisper Brain, which is powered by the Lantronix Open-Q 820 µSOM. The Open-Q 820 provides Neural Network processing for sound as well as the low latencies required for speech intelligibility and the processing power to make it all work.

Lantronix’s Open-Q 820 µSOM is the world’s smallest production-ready, pre-certified micro computing module based on the Qualcomm® cutting-edge Snapdragon™ 820 processor. Designed for OEMs, its advanced technology and extensive range of peripherals provide the perfect platform for creating high-performance embedded and mobile devices.

Results: An Affordable Prototype and Speed to Market

Utilizing the Open-Q 820 µSOM enabled the Whisper designers to revolutionize hearing systems by using artificial intelligence, machine learning and wireless technology. The earpieces stay tiny since the Open-Q 820-based processing module is placed in the Whisper Brain, a small device about the size of a deck of cards that can be conveniently carried by the user.

Unlike traditional hearing aids, the Open-Q 820 µSOM’s unique architecture combines traditional powerful CPU cores with a unique advanced digital signaling processor, resulting in efficient power consumption while reducing sound delays and providing advanced separation of speech from background noise.

The Whisper App delivers regular software upgrades to give users the benefit of the very latest advances in hearing technology, delivering the only hearing system that actually learns and gets better over time.

Benefits of utilizing Lantronix’s Open-Q 820 µSOM Include:

• Accelerated timeline to deliver a prototype
• Reduced total cost of development
• Faster production and time-to-market
• FCC/IC and Canada Pre-certified

“We at Lantronix are proud to contribute to the development of the Whisper Hearing System that learns and adapts to the soundtrack of the user’s environment,” said Jonathan Shipman, VP of Strategy at Lantronix.

About Whisper

Established in 2017, Whisper is a team of artificial intelligence, hearing care, hardware, and software experts coming together to solve the challenge of providing better hearing. The team created the Whisper Hearing System so their parents, grandparents, friends and teammates can have a tomorrow that sounds even better than today. For more information visit https://whisper.ai/.

About Lantronix

Lantronix Inc. is a global provider of secure turnkey solutions for the Internet of Things (IoT) and Remote Environment Management (REM), offering Software as a Service (SaaS), connectivity services, engineering services and intelligent hardware. Lantronix enables its customers to provide reliable and secure IoT Intelligent Edge and OOBM solutions while accelerating time to market. Lantronix’s products and services dramatically simplify the creation, development, deployment and management of IoT projects while providing quality, reliability and security across hardware, software and solutions.

With three decades of proven experience in creating robust IoT technologies and OOBM solutions, Lantronix is an innovator in enabling its customers to build new business models, leverage greater efficiencies and realize the possibilities of the Internet of Things. Lantronix’s solutions are deployed inside millions of machines at data centers, offices and remote sites serving a wide range of industries, including energy, agriculture, medical, security, manufacturing, distribution, transportation, retail, financial, environmental and government.

Lantronix is headquartered in Irvine, Calif. For more information, visit www.lantronix.com.

Learn more at the Lantronix blog, www.lantronix.com/blog, featuring industry discussion and updates. To follow Lantronix on Twitter, please visit www.twitter.com/Lantronix. View our video library on YouTube at www.youtube.com/user/LantronixInc or connect with us on LinkedIn at www.linkedin.com/company/lantronix.

“Safe Harbor” Statement under the Private Securities Litigation Reform Act of 1995: Any statements set forth in this news release that are not entirely historical and factual in nature, including without limitation statements related to our solutions, technologies and products as well as the use of our products in the development of Whisper’s Whisper Hearing System, are forward-looking statements. These forward-looking statements are based on our current expectations and are subject to substantial risks and uncertainties that could cause our actual results, future business, financial condition, or performance to differ materially from our historical results or those expressed or implied in any forward-looking statement contained in this news release. The potential risks and uncertainties include, but are not limited to, such factors as the effects of negative or worsening regional and worldwide economic conditions or market instability on our business, including effects on purchasing decisions by our customers; the impact of the COVID-19 outbreak on our employees, supply and distribution chains, and the global economy; cybersecurity risks; changes in applicable U.S. and foreign government laws, regulations, and tariffs; our ability to successfully implement our acquisitions strategy or integrate acquired companies; difficulties and costs of protecting patents and other proprietary rights; the level of our indebtedness, our ability to service our indebtedness and the restrictions in our debt agreements; and any additional factors included in our Annual Report on Form 10-K for the fiscal year ended June 30, 2020, filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission (the “SEC”) on September 11, 2020, including in the section entitled “Risk Factors” in Item 1A of Part I of such report, as well as in our other public filings with the SEC. Additional risk factors may be identified from time to time in our future filings. The forward-looking statements included in this release speak only as of the date hereof, and we do not undertake any obligation to update these forward-looking statements to reflect subsequent events or circumstances.

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