- Getting Started with Kinect
- Netflix App and Gesture Support
- Power of Your Voice
Power of Your Voice
I have noticed how little known the voice command support Kinect offers is whenever I am discussing Kinect with people. Whether this is due to Microsoft's heavy marketing of the gesture-supported games or the lack of commercials showing off its voice recognition, most people apparently don't know anything about this feature or how it is used. In spite of this, voice command functionality is another very cool Kinect feature.
As in Star Trek, when people interact with the computer, they verbally communicate "computer" and then give a command. The same is true for Kinect, except with the substitution of "computer" with "Xbox". The list of commands to say after "Xbox" is "play", "pause", "rewind", and "fast forward".
Although the voice command functionality is very Star Trek[nd]like, movie searching is where this slightly lacks functionality. Like the gesture support, it simply uses the Netflix-suggested movies algorithm to display a list of titles with "Video 1", "Video 2", "Video 3", and "Video 4" under the movie icons.
If you don't like what they recommended, you can simply say "Next", and the next four suggested titles will slide into view. If you want to go back to the four previously suggested titles, say "Previous". Once you see something you want to watch, simply say "Video 2" if that is the command displayed under the title you want to watch.
If you want to find the movie you are really looking for, the controller is needed. The real benefit is when you are watching a movie and get to use your voice.
Rushing to pause a movie or TV show by grabbing the remote with your popcorn[nd]butter drenched hands is a thing of the past. Simply say "Xbox pause", and Kinect is very responsive to pause the movie within 1 to 2 seconds.
To resume, just say "Xbox Play". Based on my experience, these are the most-used voice commands in your Netflix app. That is not to say that the other commands aren't useful, however.
Rewinding or fast forwarding a movie with your voice is equally responsive. Say "Xbox rewind" or "Xbox fast forward", and your wish is Kinect's command.
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Figure 4 Voice-enabled fast forward and rewind screen
During the rewind and fast forward process you can say "faster" or "slower" to easily get to the place in the video you want. The slowest speed is 10x, which is the speed it begins with. Each time you say "faster", it will speed up to the next speed.
An interesting thing to note is when you are on speed 160x and say "faster", it remains on this speed. When you are on speed 10x and say "slower", it plays the movie as if you said "play". The available speeds are 10x, 20x, 40x, 80x, and 160x.
Voice commands can be used to open the Netflix app, navigate the suggested movies list, start a suggested movie, or control any movie once it has already been started. Although searching a movie without the use of a controller is limited to suggested movies, all other aspects of Netflix voice command works better than expected to the point of practicality. Your controller won't start collecting dust anytime soon, but this new way of controlling your movie-watching experience will certainly impress your friends and definitely make you crave for more apps to take advantage of this technology in the same manner.
Bryon J. Greene is a Sr. Software Engineer for Inkubook and is a Purdue University graduate. Bryon has been interested in bleeding-edge technology for many years, from Commodore 64 in the '80s to Windows Phone 7, Xbox, and Kinect. Because of his passion, Bryon is currently working on Kinect, Windows Phone 7, Bing maps, Xbox 360, and other projects involving the latest technology. You can reach Bryon by emailing him at boardermindtrick@hotmail.com.