Artificial Intelligence Based Noise Cancellation Arrives On Skype

The long-awaited noise cancellation feature has finally arrived in  Skype. Microsoft has added a noise cancellation feature that is based on Artificial Intelligence to video-calling app Skype.

The outbreak of the Coronavirus disease last year caused a huge shift to digital services and digital services providers had to add new and relevant features so as not to become obsolete and at the same time, be able to meet the needs of people. Skype has received numerous updates and new features to assist people who had to stay at home, to cope with the new normal of doing basically everything at home.

The new noise cancellation feature is one good feature that will surely improve Skype users’ video-calling experience but that does not change the fact that this is one feature that would have come in handy during the lockdowns, because it would have been both helpful and useful in the period of lockdowns that ensued after the Coronavirus disease broke out.

The new noise cancellation feature will first be available on the desktop version of Skype and eventually make its way to the mobile version.

Microsoft revealed that the noise cancellation feature was designed for Teams but have been included to be operational on Skype as well. Microsoft made it known that the noise cancellation feature will cancel out other noise in the background and leave only the user’s voice during a call. In a blogpost by Microsoft, the company explained that, ‘it works by analysing your audio fess and then using specially trained deep neural networks to filter out the noise without affecting the speaker’s voice. While traditional noise suppression algorithms can address simple, consistent noises like that of a fan, these neural networks can learn the difference between speech and more complex, inconsistent noises such as typing on a keyboard, the crunch of a food wrapper, and, yes that howling dog’.

To activate this new feature on your desktop, first, you need to update your Skype app to its latest version and login using your Microsoft or Skype account. The next thing to do is to click the ‘Account’ icon and then to settings. The next thing to do is click on the ‘Audio and Video’s option, then click on noise cancellation. Check on the ‘Off’ drop down and select either Low, Mid and High to turn on noise cancellation on Skype.