Xbox, can you hear me now? One requires repetition (Update)
Like a stubborn family member or insubordinate employee, Xbox One owners might need to tell their fancy new console what to do more than once.
In flashy commercials that began airing last week to promote Microsoft's upcoming video game system, an array of users verbally command their Xbox Ones to do stuff like answer a Skype call, fire up a "Titanfall" match or play the latest "Star Trek" film. The ads leave out one detail: They probably had to repeat themselves a couple of times for it to work.
At a demonstration of the Xbox One this week organized by Microsoft, the new version of the company's voice-and-motion-detecting Kinect sensor didn't work nearly as flawlessly in real life. The Xbox 360 successor, which is scheduled for release Nov. 22, required several commands to be repeated for the response to pop up on screen.
During a private 45-minute presentation showcasing the console's media and entertainment capabilities, about 10 of 45 voice commands issued had to be repeated by a Microsoft spokesman—some as many as four times. Kinect didn't immediately detect such orders as "Xbox, watch ESPN" and "Xbox, Bing movies with Sandra Bullock" during the demo.
"Everything you're seeing here is going to get better," promised Jose Pinero, senior director of marketing and public relations for Xbox, at the conclusion of Wednesday's demo. "Right now, we're still a couple of weeks away but voice, the more you use it and the more the system learns, the more accurate it becomes. We're still working on fit and finish."
"Microsoft got so intoxicated by the first generation of Kinect that I think they're just assuming people are still really excited about Kinect," said James McQuivey, Forrester Research analyst and author of "Digital Disruption: Unleashing the Next Wave of Innovation."
McQuivey said because Microsoft has turned its attention to other audiences besides just gamers, they could potentially sell half as many Xbox Ones as they did Xbox 360s over the next-gen console's lifetime, especially if the system doesn't work as advertised.
Full article at: http://phys.org/news/2013-11-xbox-requires-repetition.html#jCp
