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Intel stumbles while stepping to Apple's 6 button remote

Honestly: I'm always down for some competition; it keeps (some) companies innovating and (hopefully) on their toes. But wow... if you're going to openly take on a device like Apple's beautiful and simple 6-button Remote, it might be a good idea to make sure you're firing on all cylinders.

Check out this video at CNET of Don McDonald, Intel's VP and general manager of their digital home group, demoing a voice-activated remote for Windows Media Center. Mr. McDonald brags that the remote has absolutely no buttons, but forgets to mention it has almost no functionality either. Watch, as he tries not once, not twice, not thrice - but a whopping four times (with some serious lag on his last attempt) to ask the remote "what time is Family Guy on TV." Also, note how much they trust the abilities of their 'zero button remote'... with all the buttons it actually contains.

I'd say you and your team earned an A for effort Don, but you might have to whip out those tablet PCs and get back to the drawing board on the voice-activation bit. Just be careful the next time you try using it to dictate your product design notes.

[via digg]

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Honestly: I'm always down for some competition; it keeps (some) companies innovating and (hopefully) on their toes. But wow... if you're...
 

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frank d

... the zero button remote with 20 buttons also has a PTT (pust to talk) button on the side?!

Leaving the remote for what it is, they must have some pretty good technology behind it, if the computer can understand short sentences and a plethora of TV show titles from any user who requests it without training ... which I'm assuming is what they were trying to showcase.

Still, I think talking to your computer (other than dictation) is a novelty. Short of 15 years ago I had some voice commands programmed with my then state of the art "multimedia computer" which meant it had a 2x CD-ROM & 16 bit sound card. Through the soundblaster software you could record your voice command and attach actions to those. It was fun for a while, but grew old really quick.

And, even with current technology you'll need a button or the batteries will drain constantly, relaying that audio signal to the pc ... and then what about all those "command not found" errors?

April 18 2006 at 3:32 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Brandon A

If it is a "no button remote", isn't it really just a wireless microphone?

April 18 2006 at 2:09 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Josh

This was really lame. I'm not giving the guy any slack for echos or mic problems (thats why you rehearse your demo BEFORE you do it live!). The remote clearly has 30-40 buttons on it. And as mentioned before, the guy definitely clicks a button for voice command input. I will give them some slack for the interface, the sloppy multi-windows to get to the thing you wanted is Windows fault. The same device for a different OS would probably work much smoother. Lastly, and most importantly - they made the same silly mistake so many people make when dealing with Apple, they didn't do there homework. Apple has been there and done that, voice recognition was in the Mac OS well before OS X. Any 3rd party developer (or average person will a hour to kill) could make some macros or a software app using what is already in the Mac OS and turn any Bluetooth mic/headset into a true no-button remote.

April 17 2006 at 2:25 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Douglas Shearer

Surely a voice activated remote on a system that is already playing music or some other audio output is a bit of a flaw?

I mean, do you think it's going to pick up "Record Lost for this week and the next 7 weeks" while you play AC DC at level 11??

April 17 2006 at 1:49 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Adrian vG

A zero-button remote? Why use a remote at all? And I totally agree with Stefan about the time it takes to talk to the system, and also, it's tiring to talk to your computer. And good comment LD! Nuf' said

April 17 2006 at 12:46 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
GmanMac

I owned a voice activated remote for TV my 10 years ago. Worked about as well as his does.
Still not ready for prime time.

April 17 2006 at 12:45 PM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
LD

If you're going to talk smack about someone like Apple you better have the goods to back it up.

When it finally did work it was pretty lame. It's just using a phone-style keypad interface to macro through screens. Why not just go directly to the info you request?

April 17 2006 at 11:56 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
paul

not to mention the 20$ 6-button gets it done, while this intel technology miracle costs surely 400$. what about universality? are they coming preprogramed with 200 languages? and what if i just say: when runs family guy this week? is it going to get that? or do i need to learn the exact commands?

I bet that if you hear that wrong-command-beep a couple of minutes long, trying to switch the channel to get your family guy, after trying 100 different commands if you forgot the right one, you'll be craving for a micro$oft 120-button mouse...

April 17 2006 at 11:37 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Austin

Oh how painful!

April 17 2006 at 11:26 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
Kenny

Of course, the remote he uses for his "no button remote" demo contains at least 20 buttons.

April 17 2006 at 11:16 AM Report abuse rate up rate down Reply
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