Logitech
Innovation Brief
RightSound!" Technology
Logitech® QuickCam® Webcams
With the recent advancements in live voice and video communications over the Internet, people can now see and talk to each other for free using a PC and a webcam. Logitech, the world s leading manufacturer of webcams, is making the experience of live video calling even better with the introduction of RightSound!"
technology. Featuring acoustic echo cancelation software, Logitech® RightSound technology is now available with some of the company s new QuickCam® webcams.
The Problem: Echo and Feedback
Using a microphone near a speaker in an audio system creates a technical challenge, whether it s with a concert audio soundstage, a speakerphone, or a computer system. Many webcams include an integrated microphone.
However, because of the microphone s sensitivity and close proximity to computer speakers, people using live video calling applications commonly experience an echo that is disruptive to a conversation. Because of the echo, using a webcam with a live video calling application required wearing a headset until now.
The Solution: Logitech RightSound Technology
With Logitech RightSound technology, people can communicate freely without a headset a more natural way of interacting just as if they were in the same room with a friend or family member. RightSound technology allows the whole family to join the conversation without having to pass a headset from person to person.
Logitech RightSound technology, part of Logitech s webcam software drivers, recognizes and eliminates repeated sound waves before they are reproduced as feedback or echo. The RightSound acoustic echo cancellation (AEC)
algorithm analyzes sound waves and identifies those repeated within 128 milliseconds of one another, then filters the redundant sound. In that timeframe, sound is capable of traveling approximately 40 meters; an echo caused by a wall as far as 20 meters away (as sound travels to and from the wall) will be reduced.
Reducing Feedback and Echo
To illustrate how RightSound Technology eliminates echo, here is a fairly common scenario:
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Participating in a video call, two people are using webcams with integrated microphones and typical computer speakers. Person A begins to speak; his voice signal is captured by his microphone and transmitted through Person
B s speaker.
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Without RightSound: Person B s microphone then picks up the voice signal directly from the speaker or as it bounces off a nearby wall, and transmits it back to Person A, who hears himself. The echo may be magnified as the original voice signal continues to cycle back and forth.
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With RightSound: Person B s system with Logitech s RightSound
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