Contact Information: PRESS CONTACTS (For Editors Only): AKUSTICA, INC. Marcie Weinstein Phone: 412/390-1730 Email: mweinstein@akustica.com VETRANO COMMUNICATIONS Lisa Figlioli Phone: 203/625-0082 Email: l.figlioli@vetrano.com
Loud and Clear: Akustica Digital Microphones Showcase Voice in New Mobile PCs
AKU2001 CMOS MEMS Microphone Arrays in TabletKiosk Sahara Slate PCs
| Source: Akustica, Inc.
PITTSBURGH, PA -- (MARKET WIRE) -- February 21, 2007 -- Akustica, Inc., pioneer in acoustic
system-on-chip solutions, today announced that TabletKiosk's family of
Sahara Slate PCs are shipping with an embedded "dual array" of its AKU2001
digital microphones. The Sahara Slate i412T, i440T, and i440D are the first
tablet PCs using Akustica digital microphones.
The AKU2001 is a single-chip digital-output microphone manufactured using
Akustica's patented Complementary Metal Oxide Semiconductor (CMOS)
microelectromechanical systems (MEMS) technology. The small form factor and
digital output of the AKU2001 deliver the ideal microphone solution for
enhancing the voice-input quality in a tablet PC.
"Akustica's digital microphones bring a new level of voice input quality to
the Sahara Slate PC and ensure that users will never experience the
irritating buzzing noises that traditional microphones often pick up from a
nearby cellphone or even from the WiFi antennas and power supplies that are
also located in the slate itself," said Davin Yuknis, Akustica's vice
president of marketing and product management. "Our digital microphones
have also enabled TabletKiosk to leverage the audio features available in
the new Microsoft Vista operating system which use multiple microphones to
further enhance input sound quality. The overall result is crystal clear
voice input for VoIP (Voice over Internet Protocol) applications and a
higher degree of speech recognition accuracy."
The Sahara Slate PCs are TabletKiosk's new series of slate-style computers
designed especially for business users in retail, restaurants, casino
operations, warehousing, control systems and healthcare. Users can input
data directly on the tablet's screen with either a digital pen or a touch.
Additionally, the tiny microphone arrays, neatly embedded in the bezel of
the tablet's 12.1-inch thin-film transistor liquid-crystal display, provide
a high quality audio input solution that lets users speak into the computer
-- an important element because the tablet PCs do not have an integrated
keyboard.
"Embedding AKU2001 microphone arrays in our family of Sahara Slate PCs
ensures that users will have the ability to make voice annotations and
internet-based phone calls that sound cleaner and better as well as do
dictations using speech recognition applications that are more accurate
than ever before," said Gail Levy, TabletKiosk's director of marketing.
"This technology is a competitive advantage for us -- and for our customers
in vertical markets with an emphasis on productivity."
Where to Buy
Manufacturer's suggested retail price for the Sahara Slate PC i440D starts
at $2,295 with an Intel Core Duo L2500 processor, 1.0 Gigabyte (GB) memory,
80 GB hard-disk drive and Windows Vista Business.
TabletKiosk is a wholly owned subsidiary of Sand Dune Ventures Inc., a
privately held technology incubator. The company produces slate-style
Tablet and Ultra-Mobile PCs marketed through an authorized reseller channel
and directly through the company website. For more information, visit
www.TabletKiosk.com.
About Akustica
Founded in 2001, Akustica, Inc. is a privately held company based in
Pittsburgh, PA. Manufactured using their revolutionary CMOS MEMS
technology, Akustica's Sensory Silicon products enable electronic devices
to sense and respond to the world around them. By leveraging standard CMOS
processes and MEMS technology, Akustica's acoustic system-on-chip solutions
combine the functionality of transducers with microelectronics and software
onto a single chip. Only Akustica's CMOS MEMS microphones -- pioneered by
Akustica chief technologist and co-founder Ken Gabriel, Ph.D., during his
tenure at Carnegie Mellon University -- enable
single-chip solutions with arrays of transducers and integrated signal
processing that disrupt both conventional microphone and speaker
technologies. Smaller and more reliable than electret condenser
microphones, Akustica's silicon microphones can be customized with advanced
sound-capture features and noise-reduction capabilities. Akustica digital
output microphones are now reaching the market in commercial volumes,
helping to fulfill demand for improved voice input in a host of
voice-enabled applications, from Internet telephony on notebooks to PC
camera modules and mobile phones.
More information about Akustica can be obtained via Phone: (412)390-1730,
Fax (412)390-1737, Email: contact@akustica.com or Web: www.akustica.com.
Akustica and the Akustica logo are registered trademarks and Sensory
Silicon is a trademark of Akustica, Inc. All other product and company
names are trademarks or registered trademarks of their respective holders.