A Voice-Controlled TV Remote

Pankaj Arora writes "California-based Agile TV aims to 'change the way people watch TV' via the creation of its voice-controlled TV remote, Promptu. From the article: 'The Promptu remote is designed to replace a conventional remote control and includes a "Talk" button and a built-in microphone, together with an infra-red receiver used in conjunction with an existing cable box.' Personally, I'm waiting for the version that interfaces with your brain."

Best feature

Of course, the best feature of a voice-controlled remote would be to yell out, "Where the hell are you?" and have it respond, "Over here!"

Re:Best feature

Which, of course, becomes useless if you apply it to a number of devices. Might work better if it responds to "Where are you, remote control?"

Better yet

Let's make the remote control pointless and have the TV itself be voice-activated.

voice control

I've noticed that voice commands seem to take more energy than pushing buttons. Why present it like it's an advancement?

Re:voice control

I agree.
Voice recoginition is fine if the result is supposed to be a text, but commands?

Its like in star trek. Think about how many battles would have been won if they had a big red "fire phaser" and a green "modulate shield frequency" button an the captains chair (instead of wasting time speaking it out everytime) :)

Re:voice control

Its like in star trek. Think about how many battles would have been won if they had a big red "fire phaser" and a green "modulate shield frequency" button an the captains chair (instead of wasting time speaking it out everytime) :)

Seat belts. How come they never had seat belts, even though they were always flying out of their chairs?

If I were going to battle the Enterprise, I'd get a starship with a bigass bumper, heavily padded chairs, airbags, and of course, lots and lots of seat belts. Just ram them at high speed... and then send in a boarding party with spatulas to clean up the mess.

Re:voice control

I played with IBM's ViaVoice several years ago. It's next to useless.

For regular text, the results don't even resemble whatever was said. Getting a single sentence right is a major feat, even after a number of repetitions. And this was not just me, none of my friends was able to make the damn thing work.

For simple commands, it often worked. There were frequent mistakes, but generally, it looked like it might be an idea worth pursuing.

However, every time you try talking to your computer, everyone in your vicinity looks at you weird way. Sure, getting accustomed to such gizmos would shake off this reaction pretty fast, but even then, it wouldn't be treated any gentler than it's the case for a cell phone going off in a bus. Talking to a machine makes you stand out.

Re:voice control

I can see that to a degree. "Volume up, volume up, volume up" or "next, next, next, next". But if the TV was smarter (or it integrated with your TiVo or something) then it could be very hany. If you use a TiVo, then you basically never use the channel up/down buttons (I don't). So the commands could be more like:

• Play Friday's Law & Order
• Play the oldest Cheers episode
• Add a wishlist for "Stargate"
• Record PBS at 5pm on Wendsday
• Show me the to-do list
• or... Play all episodes on the TiVo of shows directed by people who's last names start with the letter "R" that were NOT aired in the 80s in alphebetical order of guest stars' characters' first names. (OK, useless, but can you imagine how hard it would be to enter that in a UI with just a remote?).

Give the box some intelligence and it could be useful. But one word for each remote button on a standard TV would be painful.

Email Powered?

How about a TV where you email it directions? Examples:

1. Tape all "Charmed" episodes

2. Turn OFF

Think of the possibilities! You won't even need to be in the same country!

Worthless...

Excuse my cynicism, but if I have to push a button in the first place, why shouldn't I just press the appropriate button to perform the desired command?

Dan East

Old Technology

We had these when I was a kid.

They were called "children".

Nothing new about this...

...which would be well known to anyone in the custom high-end AV biz. It's also probably a bad idea as sooner or later an argument in the family room erupts over which channel to watch and the system has a nervous breakdown as it hears "Nickolodeon!" "MTV!" "Golf!" and so on until you go back to the good old fashioned button remote.

From the article

It comes with a handy reference card that helpfully explains "You can also find an actor in an Adult program by saying 'Find Adult Actor' and the actor's name".

Aha! The true purpose is revealed! Naturally, one's hands will be occupied when searching for adult actors...

Oh god no...

Personally, I'm waiting for the version that interfaces with your brain.

What, so it changes to the playboy channel every 3 min?

This is...

Personally, I'm waiting for the version that interfaces with your brain.

Assuming you have one left, after all that TV...

My voice-activated remote control is broken

My voice-activated remote control is broken. I keep asking for cooking shows about "prawns" and I get something wayyyy different.

works great until...

...you watch a show about the english channel and the increase in the volume of ships using it.

"German Shizer Porn"

All I want to know, is which retard invented a voice-controlled remote but put a button on it that you have to press before you can actually talk? What would have been useful is a remote control that would make a beep when you called it after you had lost it down the sofa. They could have put all these search features on a device with a screen or just taken any PDA with an infra red port and written some software.

Verdict: no one is using it now and no-one will be using it in 6 months time..