All the better to hear you and locate you, my dear

In vehicle passenger compartments, it often isn’t enough to just hear a speaker. Electronic systems frequently would like to know the location of the speaker and cancel out as much background noise as possible. That’s the reason ST’s BlueCoin starter kit has a four-microphone array. An STM32F446 180 MHz MCU runs advanced sensor fusion algorithms like adaptive beamforming and sound source localization. The version of the BlueCoin kit on the Tech Tour is a new one where the four digital mics produce signals that go over the Automotive Audio Bus (A2B or A2B), optimized for transporting 32-bit digital audio over unshielded twisted pair cables. ST personnel said the A2B version is going into production by the first part of next year.
NEXT: Keeping tabs on USB connections