If I were Microsoft...

[Shifty Geezer]

now in a typical household room its going to be worse than this.

You have people on this board with hands-on, daily experience saying otherwise. That's leads to a small set of interpretations and assumptions:

1) They're all lying and Kinect doesn't work very well but they don't want to admit to that and are arguing for the sake of arguing.
2) It works just as well as they are saying and your assumptions about Kinect's failure to provide robust voice control, which you yourself haven't used, are completely wrong.

Which are you going with?

 

[Bigus Dickus]

So for you it works OK, but like you say youre in an ideal situation good mic/quiet room etc. Im talking about the usual siri/google voice which uses the inbuilt mic on the phone/pad

Tiny suboptimal mic, low power processor, and software not written by the leaders in the field? Yeah, great reference.

MS has half the equation already in place... decently powerful multiprocessor device with quality microphone array and dedicated processing both hardware and software to accompany it creating a capable moderately priced platform that stands a chance at understanding you across the room in a variety of noise environments.

Now bring in nuance to implement a more full featured software, and work on the devices/extenders/bridges required.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

I've never tried it, but I'm doubtful. It'll ignore the TV with a news channel on - as long as it's not too loud - or a ringing phone.

It's very good at ignoring the noise coming from the Mac though, you can even play music (again, not too loud as to drown out your voice) on the same device and it still works well.

I'm guessing Xbox One's advantages are a) Kinect is generally in the vicinity of the primary speakers and b) it knows what the noise is being output to assist in noise cancellation. Isn't that why you have to calibrate it?

The Xbox One also takes in ambient noise that isn't being generated by the console during calibration as well.

It also has the ability to detect where a user is (if they are in front of the TV/consol/Kinect) and using the microphone array can isolate a person's voice in a way that a mic on a computer cannot.

When the user isn't in front, I'd assume the microphone array would still provide more accurate voice recognition.

I know that I can still reliably issue voice commands from one room away while content is playing (music for example).

I've found it really is VERY nice to be able to not only wake up the machine purely via voice, but to turn it off as well. Mute is also invaluable when controlled via voice. No longer do I have to look for a remote to mute my music if I get a phone call, I can just tell the console to mute and answer my incoming call.

Regards,
SB

 

[rokkerkory]

Just drop the price and have great games. That's the best thing MS can do.

 

[blakjedi]

Just drop the price and have great games. That's the best thing MS can do.

Exactly.

 

[Sonic]

People who want MS to cut Kinect out for a lower priced machine need to learn patience. Just because Xbox One and its games don't appeal to to many people at $500 doesn't mean it won't appeal to them at $300 or $400. The people that the machine appeals to at a lower price point are the people that will buy it when the price is lowered. There's little reason for MS to shoot themselves in the foot early on. At least with including Kinect in every Bone sold it will guarantee that it will get used. And they have plenty of time to refine and improve upon the Kinect experience; the generation just started.

I think it would be extremely foolish of MS to release a cut down version of the Bone and would hinder them in the long run more than it helps. I understand a lot of people don't like the concept of Kinect or voice activation and don't want to have it forced on them with the console. MS has deemed it a worthy and essential part of the machine's overall experience and I happen to agree after playing the Bone the past few days.

And as far as home automation goes...I'm 100% for it. If I could alter the temperature and lighting settings by talking to my Xbox I would totally do that. If I were able to walk in my house after coming home from work or being out and just tell the Kinect/Xbox to select a memorized preset I would totally take advantage of that. Maybe it's just because I've recently rewatched Star Trek TNG series that I find the appeal so freaking awesome. If MS can make this happen with the Bone I've got my wallet open. My home is pretty much set up for it now. Let's do it.

 

[Bigus Dickus]

Just drop the price and have great games. That's the best thing MS can do.

I'm not denying that gaming isn't a big market, but there are a lot more people out there. I'm glad Apple believed there was a larger market than just businessmen who might be interested in a smartphone, instead of just trying to make a competitive slightly cheaper blackberry like device with a new feature or two. "Who would ever want a small touchscreen computer that plays media, surfs the web, and makes phone calls?... just give me a cheaper device that does phone, text, and email well...."

 

[dagamer]

The Xbox One will compete by leveraging Microsoft's strengths as a software company, namely having a common core with Windows 8 and Windows Phone in building apps. And that honestly is where it will shine. They need to get Rdio, Spotify, Pandora, SlingBox, Plex, MLB, NHL, NBA, etc.. to all build apps so that you have a seamless experience switching from apps to games and vice versa.

 

[orangpelupa]

windows has had speech recognition for years
http://windows.microsoft.com/en-gb/windows-8/using-speech-recognition
you can even buy a kinnect for windows should you want one

unfortunately the voice recognition on windows is much worse than xbox 360. Even on windows 8.1, it works about the same bad quality as windows vista era

Or MS just need to work together with apartement or residency developers and create expensive, high class, high tech house with them.

they can be equipped with kinect voice command everywhere, xbox one, surface, all MS ecosustem

 

[blakjedi]

unfortunately the voice recognition on windows is much worse than xbox 360. Even on windows 8.1, it works about the same bad quality as windows vista era

Or MS just need to work together with apartement or residency developers and create expensive, high class, high tech house with them.

they can be equipped with kinect voice command everywhere, xbox one, surface, all MS ecosustem

The videos I've seen with voice activities on 8.1 have been encouraging. Seek out surface 2 videos on YouTube for examples.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

People who want MS to cut Kinect out for a lower priced machine need to learn patience. Just because Xbox One and its games don't appeal to to many people at $500 doesn't mean it won't appeal to them at $300 or $400.

The inclusion of Kinect will always make Xbox One more expensive than it otherwise needs to be. Whatever cost the inclusion of Kinect adds to the cost of the console, will always mean that it's always just beyond the acceptable cost to some segment of the market. How do we know this? Because every cost reduction in consoles inevitably leads to s surge in sales. The cheaper something is, the more people can afford to buy it. Simples.

The $64,000,000 question is, do Microsoft want that segment of the market who just want a games machine and nothing else. I'm in that segment.

 

[function]

I just want a games machine too. But I want a game machine with Kinect 2.

It's unfortunate that MS have put little to no effort into developing any Kinect killer apps. They want the Kinect enabled OS to the killer app, but I want to spend as little time in there as possible.

The PC I built three years ago is probably a better conventional gaming machine than either the Bone or the PS4 (it can certainly achieve higher framerates). I find myself for the first time in the position of being prepared to skip a console generation entirely.

The only thing that can really sell a Bone to me is Kinect, so they'd best not drop it.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

I just want a games machine too. But I want a game machine with Kinect 2.

It's unfortunate that MS have put little to no effort into developing any Kinect killer apps. They want the Kinect enabled OS to the killer app, but I want to spend as little time in there as possible.

I see huge potential in technology like Kinect 2, as I did Kinect, but it's still in the realm of potential. I also want Microsoft to release a killer game based on Kinect. And that's not a killer game that happens to use Kinect but a game, or the premise of a game, that simply could not be done well with a controlled. Make me want it, Microsoft. Make it sell itself.

 

[Silenti]

I see huge potential in technology like Kinect 2, as I did Kinect, but it's still in the realm of potential. I also want Microsoft to release a killer game based on Kinect. And that's not a killer game that happens to use Kinect but a game, or the premise of a game, that simply could not be done well with a controlled. Make me want it, Microsoft. Make it sell itself.

What kind of game would that be though? Assume, for the sake of argument, that the Kinect 2 works nearly flawlessly within its proven abilities. Heck, I'm not even sure where the limitations are, but assume something near the top of what you have seen so far in tech demos. I am fairly stumped for gestures that I would even find useful in an augmentation fashion much less a game built around a gesture interface. Maybe a virtual touchscreen? Wouldn't voice be faster and likely more reliable? I have yet to even read about a compelling use of the camera system for a game.

 

[Bigus Dickus]

The inclusion of Kinect will always make Xbox One more expensive than it otherwise needs to be.

That's logically impossible, as the X1 needs kinect.

Because every cost reduction in consoles inevitably leads to s surge in sales. The cheaper something is, the more people can afford to buy it. Simples.

Sure, but that doesn't guarantee higher profit. Simple business basics. In fact, there are examples of products that didn't sell well until the price was increased and marketing adjusted accordingly. Not that I think the X1 would be one of those exceptions, but even if the price/demand curve was as expected its only one part of the whole equation.

 

[Davros]

That's logically impossible, as the X1 needs kinect.

No its not,why does the x1 need a motion controller ?

 

[blakjedi]

No its not,why does the x1 need a motion controller ?

Its more than that. X1 is MS' primary tech platform. Integration of multiple entertainment and application platforms is a paramount component of their foray into the consumer electronics ecosystem.

Deep search, application switching, menu traversal, access and selection without relying on a controller -thus the creation of Natural User Interface. The Kinect as a tool is perfectly suited to the use case. Much moreso than phone based implementations.

Other cable based entertainment systems are also moving in this direction because remotes and large multi hundred channel choices work together as kludge. This is much more elegant. Without Kinect I wouldn't have bought an X1.

 

[Deleted member 11852]

That's logically impossible, as the X1 needs kinect.

No it isn't and no it doesn't. Microsoft purposely removed the consoles dependance on the Kinect sensor.

Sure, but that doesn't guarantee higher profit. Simple business basics.

To which simple business basics are you referring? Because profits on console sales aren't where the juicy profits are, it's in software. The more people that own consoles the more software you can sell.

 

[ArcticCircle]

I don't think MS needs to do anything. If their new CEO wants to keep XBox brand alive, they can eat any loss. Then again, if they want XBox gone, no amount of content for Kinect or XBox in general is going to help.

In few months XBox360 will pass Wii lifetime sales in US. Strong early sales and brand lojalty most likely mean that Xbox will win US market segment again in this generation. I don't think MS will drop Kinect (no matter if it has any games or other use) but rather drop price anyway if sales are sluggish in the near future.

 

[zupallinere]

Deep search, application switching, menu traversal, access and selection without relying on a controller

Well that is all voice stuff except for the part about not wanting to use the controller. So it's not a matter of "need" it's a matter of want.

Other cable based entertainment systems are also moving in this direction because remotes and large multi hundred channel choices work together as kludge. This is much more elegant. Without Kinect I wouldn't have bought an X1.

Without the kinect would have bought a next gen console ? I take it not since none of the MS console exclusives interest you enough. Fair point however if the kinect is what you want then what it is connected to isn't as big of an issue.