Motorola Vastly Refines Noise Cancellation

Crystaltalk Plus makes a dramatic difference when using a cell phone in noisy areas.

Despite Motorola’s relatively weak smartphone showing at this year’s Consumer Electronics Show, the company’s demonstration of Crystaltalk Plus, its new noise cancellation technology, took me off guard with its effectiveness. By using two mics instead of one, combined with advanced digital filtering technology, Motorola has managed to produce a phone that’s genuinely useable in loud situations like bars and stadiums.

Though introduced prior to CES 2009, Motorola showcased the Crystaltalk Plus tech using a sound chamber on the show floor. Inside a clear plastic tube, the company fitted speakers to generate music and noise comparable to that of a bar or modest nightclub, then allowed visitors to call a Motorola rep inside using the new Tundra rugged handset with Crystaltalk. After hearing the racket for myself when they fired up the chamber, then having a perfectly understandable conversation with the rep inside, I asked them to swap the handset out for an older Motorola with the first generation of Crystaltalk.

The difference was night in day. After sending in the old phone, I suddenly felt like I was on the receiving end of a drunken 1 a.m. phone call as the blaring music and noise cut in and made conversation nearly impossible.

Two mics, it would appear, really are better than one. Right now, Crystaltalk Plus is only available on the Tundra and a handful of other Motorola handsets, but the company anticipates it will be bringing it to many more phones in the future.