Security News > 2021 > June > PrivacyMic: A smart home system that doesn’t record speech

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.

"There are a lot of situations where we want our home automation system or our smart speaker to understand what's going on in our home, but we don't necessarily want it listening to our conversations," said Alanson Sample, U-M associate professor of electrical engineering and computer science.

PrivacyMic can filter out audible information right on the device.

The device, which can be set to filter out speech or to strip out all audible content, accurately identified common activities more than 95% of the time.

While the device is a proof of concept at this stage, Sample says that implementing similar technology in a device like a smart speaker would require only minor modifications-software that listens for ultrasonic sound and a microphone capable of picking it up, which are inexpensive and readily available.

"PrivacyMic offers another layer of privacy - you can interact with your device using audio if you choose or you can have another setting where the device can glean information without picking up audio."

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