Low Power Audio Trigger via Intermittent Sampling

1. A mobile device comprising: a battery to power the mobile device; an audio front end; and logic to, use the audio front end to obtain sampled audio from an audio signal during a first portion of a window; reduce a power consumption of one or more components of the audio front end during a second portion of the window; and determine whether voice activity is present in the audio signal based at least in part on the sampled audio, wherein a length of the first portion and a length of the second portion are to be defined by a duty cycle of the window.

2. The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the first portion is to be greater than a first overhead duration associated with one or more power up operations of the audio front end and the second portion is to be greater than a second overhead duration associated with one or more power down operations of the audio front end.

3. The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the logic is to sample the audio signal at a sample rate to obtain the sampled audio.

4. The mobile device of claim 1 , further including a power management module that at least partially includes the logic.

5. The mobile device of claim 1 , wherein the audio front end includes one or more of a microphone, a voice activity detector, an analog to digital converter, a memory and a phrase recognizer.

6. An apparatus comprising: logic at least partially comprising hardware logic to, use an audio front end of a mobile device to obtain sampled audio from an audio signal during a first portion of a window; reduce a power consumption of one or more components of the audio front end during a second portion of the window; and determine whether voice activity is present in the audio signal based at least in part on the sampled audio, wherein a length of the first portion and a length of the second portion are to be defined by a duty cycle of the window.

7. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the first portion is to be greater than a first overhead duration associated with one or more power up operations of the audio front end and the second portion is to be greater than a second overhead duration associated with one or more power down operations of the audio front end.

8. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the logic is to sample the audio signal at a sample rate to obtain the sampled audio.

9. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the logic is to store the sampled audio to a memory of the audio front end.

10. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the logic is to sample the audio signal continually if voice activity is present in the audio signal.

11. The apparatus of claim 6 , wherein the power consumption of one or more of a microphone, a voice activity detector, an analog to digital converter, a memory and a phrase recognizer is to be reduced during the second portion of the window.

12. A non-transitory computer readable storage medium comprising a set of instructions which, if executed by a processor, cause a mobile device to: use an audio front end of the mobile device to obtain sampled audio from an audio signal during a first portion of a window; reduce a power consumption of one or more components of the audio front end during a second portion of the window; and determine whether voice activity is present in the audio signal based at least in part on the sampled audio, wherein a length of the first portion and a length of the second portion are to be defined by a duty cycle of the window.

13. The medium of claim 12 , wherein the first portion is to be greater than a first overhead duration associated with one or more power up operations of the audio front end and the second portion is to be greater than a second overhead duration associated with one or more power down operations of the audio front end.

14. The medium of claim 12 , the instructions, if executed, cause the mobile device to sample the audio signal at a sample rate to obtain the sampled audio.

15. The medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions, if executed, cause the mobile device to store the sampled audio to a memory of the audio front end.

16. The medium of claim 12 , wherein the instructions, if executed, cause the mobile device to sample the audio signal continually if voice activity is present in the audio signal.

17. The medium of claim 12 , wherein the power consumption of one or more of a microphone, a voice activity detector, an analog to digital converter, a memory and a phrase recognizer is to be reduced during the second portion of the window.

18. A computer implemented method comprising: using an audio front end of a mobile device to sampled audio from an audio signal during a first portion of a window; reducing a power consumption of one or more components of the audio front end during a second portion of the window; and determining whether voice activity is present in the audio signal based at least in part on the sampled audio, wherein a length of the first portion and a length of the second portion are defined by a duty cycle of the window.

19. The method of claim 18 , wherein the first portion is greater than a first overhead duration associated with one or more power up operations of the audio front end and the second portion is greater than a second overhead duration associated with one or more power down operations of the audio front end.

20. The method of claim 18 , further including sampling the audio signal at a sample rate to obtain the sampled audio.

21. The method of claim 18 , wherein the power consumption of one or more of a microphone, a voice activity detector, an analog to digital converter, a memory and a phrase recognizer is reduced during the second portion of the window.