CrystalTalk: Mobile Innovation Award Winner 2007

Try to call home from a crowded restaurant or windy sidewalk and you might as well be using cans and string. Motorola’s new CrystalTalk feature, available in the MOTORAZR2 V8 (T-Mobile) and V9 (AT&T), uses a series of hardware and software upgrades that work in concert to make sure you can hear and be heard, even in the noisiest surroundings. It works by combining an improved headset speaker, a microphone with added ambient-noise reduction, and a digital signal processor that acts like an on-the-spot equalizer, honing in on and canceling out background noise while leaving your voice intact. Next up: the H12 Bluetooth headset with CrystalTalk baked in.