Picovoice Wordmark
Start Building
Introduction
Introduction
AndroidC.NETiOSLinuxmacOSNode.jsPythonRaspberry PiWebWindows
AndroidC.NETiOSNode.jsPythonWeb
SummaryPicovoice picoLLMGPTQ
Introduction
AndroidC.NETFlutteriOSJavaLinuxmacOSNode.jsPythonRaspberry PiReactReact NativeRustWebWindows
AndroidC.NETFlutteriOSJavaNode.jsPythonReactReact NativeRustWeb
SummaryPicovoice LeopardAmazon TranscribeAzure Speech-to-TextGoogle ASRGoogle ASR (Enhanced)IBM Watson Speech-to-TextWhisper Speech-to-Text
FAQ
Introduction
AndroidC.NETFlutteriOSJavaLinuxmacOSNode.jsPythonRaspberry PiReactReact NativeRustWebWindows
AndroidC.NETFlutteriOSJavaNode.jsPythonReactReact NativeRustWeb
SummaryPicovoice Cheetah
FAQ
Introduction
AndroidC.NETiOSLinuxmacOSNode.jsPythonRaspberry PiWebWindows
AndroidC.NETiOSNode.jsPythonWeb
SummaryAmazon PollyAzure TTSElevenLabsOpenAI TTSPicovoice Orca
Introduction
AndroidCiOSLinuxmacOSPythonRaspberry PiWebWindows
AndroidCiOSPythonWeb
SummaryPicovoice KoalaMozilla RNNoise
Introduction
AndroidCiOSLinuxmacOSNode.jsPythonRaspberry PiWebWindows
AndroidCNode.jsPythoniOSWeb
SummaryPicovoice EaglepyannoteSpeechBrainWeSpeaker
Introduction
AndroidCiOSLinuxmacOSPythonRaspberry PiWebWindows
AndroidCiOSPythonWeb
SummaryPicovoice FalconAmazon TranscribeAzure Speech-to-TextGoogle Speech-to-Textpyannote
Introduction
AndroidArduinoCChrome.NETEdgeFirefoxFlutteriOSJavaLinuxmacOSMicrocontrollerNode.jsPythonRaspberry PiReactReact NativeRustSafariUnityWebWindows
AndroidC.NETFlutteriOSJavaMicrocontrollerNode.jsPythonReactReact NativeRustUnityWeb
SummaryPorcupineSnowboyPocketSphinx
Wake Word TipsFAQ
Introduction
AndroidCChrome.NETEdgeFirefoxFlutteriOSJavaLinuxmacOSNode.jsPythonRaspberry PiReactReact NativeRustSafariUnityWebWindows
AndroidC.NETFlutteriOSJavaNode.jsPythonReactReact NativeRustUnityWeb
SummaryPicovoice RhinoGoogle DialogflowAmazon LexIBM WatsonMicrosoft LUIS
Expression SyntaxFAQ
Introduction
AndroidC.NETiOSLinuxmacOSNode.jsPythonRaspberry PiRustWebWindows
AndroidC.NETiOSNode.jsPythonRustWeb
SummaryPicovoice CobraWebRTC VAD
FAQ
Introduction
AndroidC.NETFlutteriOSNode.jsPythonReact NativeRustUnityWeb
AndroidC.NETFlutteriOSNode.jsPythonReact NativeRustUnityWeb
Introduction
C.NETNode.jsPython
C.NETNode.jsPython
FAQGlossary

Cobra Voice Activity Detection
C API

API Reference for the Cobra C SDK.


pv_cobra_t

typedef struct pv_cobra pv_cobra_t;

Container representing the Cobra VAD engine.


pv_cobra_init()

pv_status_t pv_cobra_init(const char *access_key, pv_cobra_t **object);

Creates a Cobra instance. Resources should be cleaned when you are done using the pv_cobra_delete() function.

Parameters

  • access_key const char * : AccessKey obtained from Picovoice Console.
  • object pv_cobra_t * * : Constructed instance of Cobra.

Returns

  • pv_status_t : Status code.

pv_cobra_delete()

void pv_cobra_delete(pv_cobra_t *object);

Releases resources acquired by Cobra.

Parameters

  • object pv_cobra_t * : Picovoice object.

pv_cobra_process()

pv_status_t pv_cobra_process(
pv_cobra_t *object,
const int16_t *pcm,
float *is_voiced);

Processes a frame of the incoming audio stream and emits the probability of voice activity.

The number of samples per frame can be attained by calling pv_cobra_frame_length(). The incoming audio needs to have a sample rate equal to pv_sample_rate() and be 16-bit linearly-encoded. Cobra operates on single-channel audio.

Parameters

  • object pv_cobra_t * : Cobra object.
  • pcm int16_t : A frame of audio samples.
  • is_voiced float * : Probability of voice activity. It is a floating-point number within [0, 1].

Returns

  • pv_status_t : Status code.

pv_cobra_frame_length()

int32_t pv_cobra_frame_length(void);

Getter for number of audio samples per frame.

Returns

  • int32_t : Frame length.

pv_cobra_version()

const char *pv_cobra_version(void);

Getter for version.

Returns

  • const char * : Cobra version.

pv_sample_rate()

int32_t pv_sample_rate(void);

Audio sample rate accepted by Cobra.

Returns

  • int32_t : Sample rate.

pv_status_t

typedef enum {
PV_STATUS_SUCCESS = 0,
PV_STATUS_OUT_OF_MEMORY,
PV_STATUS_IO_ERROR,
PV_STATUS_INVALID_ARGUMENT,
PV_STATUS_STOP_ITERATION,
PV_STATUS_KEY_ERROR,
PV_STATUS_INVALID_STATE,
PV_STATUS_RUNTIME_ERROR,
PV_STATUS_ACTIVATION_ERROR,
PV_STATUS_ACTIVATION_LIMIT_REACHED,
PV_STATUS_ACTIVATION_THROTTLED,
PV_STATUS_ACTIVATION_REFUSED
} pv_status_t;

Status code enum.


pv_status_to_string()

const char *pv_status_to_string(pv_status_t status);

Parameters

  • status int32_t : Status code.

Returns

  • const char * : String representation of status code.

pv_get_error_stack()

pv_status_t pv_get_error_stack(
char ***message_stack,
int32_t *message_stack_depth);

If a function returns a failure (any pv_status_t other than PV_STATUS_SUCCESS), this function can be called to get a series of error messages related to the failure. This function can only be called only once per failure status on another function. The memory for message_stack must be freed using pv_free_error_stack.

Regardless of the return status of this function, if message_stack is not NULL, then message_stack contains valid memory. However, a failure status on this function indicates that future error messages may not be reported.

Parameters

  • message_stack const char * * * : Array of messages relating to the failure. Messages are NULL terminated strings. The array and messages must be freed using pv_free_error_stack().
  • message_stack_depth int32_t * : The number of messages in the message_stack array.

Returns

  • pv_status_t : Returned status code.

pv_free_error_stack()

void pv_free_error_stack(char **message_stack);

This function frees the memory used by error messages allocated by pv_get_error_stack().

Parameters

  • message_stack const char * * * : Array of messages relating to the failure.

Was this doc helpful?

Issue with this doc?

Report a GitHub Issue
Cobra Voice Activity Detection C API
  • pv_cobra_t
  • pv_cobra_init()
  • pv_cobra_delete()
  • pv_cobra_process()
  • pv_cobra_frame_length()
  • pv_cobra_version()
  • pv_sample_rate()
  • pv_status_t
  • pv_status_to_string()
  • pv_get_error_stack()
  • pv_free_error_stack()
Voice AI
  • Leopard Speech-to-Text
  • Cheetah Streaming Speech-to-Text
  • Orca Text-to-Speech
  • Koala Noise Suppression
  • Eagle Speaker Recognition
  • Falcon Speaker Diarization
  • Porcupine Wake Word
  • Rhino Speech-to-Intent
  • Cobra Voice Activity Detection
Local LLM
  • picoLLM Inference
  • picoLLM Compression
  • picoLLM GYM
Resources
  • Docs
  • Console
  • Blog
  • Use Cases
  • Playground
Sales & Services
  • Consulting
  • Foundation Plan
  • Enterprise Plan
  • Enterprise Support
Company
  • About us
  • Careers
Follow Picovoice
  • LinkedIn
  • GitHub
  • X
  • YouTube
  • AngelList
Subscribe to our newsletter
Terms of Use
Privacy Policy
© 2019-2025 Picovoice Inc.