Poll: How accurate is XB1 voice control?

[Shifty Geezer]

Yes and no. Perhaps this was the wrong topic to engage in a discussion, but i thought it was largely relevant to the topic at hand. The way I see it, voice control is extremely difficult to gauge or put into a rating of % when talking about accuracy.

That's true, but this wasn't any attempt to quantify the accuracy of the platform. It was just to qualify the user experience as described by them. The percentage chances are just reference points. I could have used "Perfect", "Excellent", "Good" etc., but the percentage figures gets users to think a little bit about how often it fails in their estimation, whereas description by words would be too subjective. It'd be easy to vote "Excellent" for a 75-80% success rate if the user was very happy with the result still. Some might even say "Rubbish" for a 90% success rate if one felt the convenience and value wasn't there, as subjective terms often invite more emotionally influenced responses.

 

[Aenima]

After 5 days with the console, I'd say for the most part VC has an accuracy around 90%.. with that said, the accuracy does fall off a cliff with the "Xbox on" and "Xbox unsnap" commands, which requires more than a few tries in my experience.
Especially "Xbox on" (as others seem to have problems with) is annoying, as I see that as a key feature. In my case, I have much better results if I cut the "on" sound much shorter than I'd like to, but even then I'd guess the accuracy is in the 25-33% area.

"Xbox unsnap" seems to work if I say "Xbox un snap" instead of the more natural pronunciation.

 

[Bigus Dickus]

I dont quite share Shifty's downbeat fashion about the fanboyism in here.

I do, after reading this last post of yours.

What we need are topics for Xbox owners where the lucky few that have one can sit down and geek over their toy - and leave other topics where things are analyzed open for critical and constructive discussion.

Because obviously the speculation, assumptions, and imaginations of those who don't own and likely never will own an XB1 are a better substitute for reality than actual experiences from those hopelessly biased by having actually purchased one, right?

Can't have owners ruining every Xbox thread with positive reports of their experiences, now can we.

This thread has gone from ridiculous assumptions, through the backpedaling, way past justification of bias, and well into insanity.

 

[Cyan]

After 5 days with the console, I'd say for the most part VC has an accuracy around 90%.. with that said, the accuracy does fall off a cliff with the "Xbox on" and "Xbox unsnap" commands, which requires more than a few tries in my experience.
Especially "Xbox on" (as others seem to have problems with) is annoying, as I see that as a key feature. In my case, I have much better results if I cut the "on" sound much shorter than I'd like to, but event then I'd guess the accuracy is in the 25-33% area.

"Xbox unsnap" seems to work if I say "Xbox un snap" instead of the more natural pronunciation.

That's how I pronounce it, and it works 100% of the time for me. Xbox Snap is where things can get tricky for me. If I space both words out then there is no problem.

As for console wars and stuff like that, people haven't seen much, I think. Beyond3D has pampered us just too much, this is an oasis of peace by comparison.

Eurogamer's forums can be quite a sight, at times, when Xbox One is involved. Aside from that, there have been huge scandals in other places. Here the PS is where it sells the most after Japan, iirc, and I usually read a console forum where I get some news from. Well, the moderators began to get rid of Xbox users and Wii users left the place time ago. The administrators and CEOs of the site had to take matters on their hands and fired most of the moderators, but it was a bit late already, people now barely create Xbox One threads and the Wii or WiiU make a symbolic appearance there from time to time. I think visiting places like that can be counterproductive 'cos it has the potential to radicalise your views. The site seems to be on the mend, but... it isn't as popular as it was.

 

[joker454]

As for console wars and stuff like that, people haven't seen much, I think. Beyond3D has pampered us just too much, this is an oasis of peace by comparison.

You're totally right, that's why this is the only console forum I read as the others are all mostly fanboy cesspools that I want nothing to do with other than to look at for the occasional laugh. Heck I still occasionally get messaged links to fanboy forum posts from friends in the biz and we laugh while trying to figure out if these people are really this stupid or are they paid to post such nonsense. But that's why I get particularly aggravated when the fanboy nonsense starts appearing here because it will ruin this forum as well if left unchecked. Let them stay over on n4g, gaf or wherever and post whatever comic relief nonsense they want over there.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

After 5 days with the console, I'd say for the most part VC has an accuracy around 90%.. with that said, the accuracy does fall off a cliff with the "Xbox on" and "Xbox unsnap" commands, which requires more than a few tries in my experience.
Especially "Xbox on" (as others seem to have problems with) is annoying, as I see that as a key feature. In my case, I have much better results if I cut the "on" sound much shorter than I'd like to, but even then I'd guess the accuracy is in the 25-33% area.

"Xbox unsnap" seems to work if I say "Xbox un snap" instead of the more natural pronunciation.

I'm not sure if you've seen my suggestions on the matter.

Xbox On is unlike the other Xbox voice commands in that it is a singular command rather than "Xbox" slight pause "command". "Xbox On", however is a singular command and there shouldn't be that same pause.

And that's because the Xbox is only ever listening for 2 things, "Xbox" or "Xbox On".

Regards,
SB

 

[Phil]

Can't have owners ruining every Xbox thread with positive reports of their experiences, now can we.

That's taking it a little bit out of context, isn't it? The point was more about that some topics are created for owners to share experiences (like the ps4 smell topic) where discussions are kept to a minimum and allows posters to write up their personal experiences. Then, there are other topics, like the xbone/ps4 business-approach one, where the aim is to encourage constructive discussion - something that is at the forefront of this forum and why many of us are here in the first place.

Then you have topics like this one that are a bit inbetween. I've conceeded already that my arguments that were clearly directed at the comparison to remote controls (brought up by others) perhaps wasnt in the right thread. On the other hand however, as far as i understand, this topic was also created as a direct result of criticism voiced in the other topic (i assume the business approach one) so that we have some basis from real owners as to how accurate VC is. In other words, the results of this poll has some relevance to the discussion(s) of various different topics here, which is why i felt my points as to how to gauge the accuracy is rather important [for these other topics].

As I said, as an experience marker, this poll is great and simple. As a basis to discuss the pros and cons on VC and its potential of revolutionizing the livingroom argument, it is not. That's fine, not every topic needs to be turned into a discussion and i appologize if i have contributed to that.

As for the rest of your post which I assume was directed at me - I see no logic in having to be an owner to participate in a discussion on the prospect of a feature and its possible impact on the market. If that was any requirement, you would eliminate any discussion/speculation on unreleased products. I would also suggest you focus on arguing the post itself, rather than the imagined motivation/intentions (fanboyism/bias) behind posters. It doesnt seem all that constructive to me.


MODS/Shifty; if this is too off-topic, perhaps we could move some of these posts on the topic of "fanboyisn in the console forum" to a dedicated topic? I'd be quite happy to follow up on this subject overthere and seeing that some believe this place to be quite bad, maybe it would spark some additional view points from other members on how this place has apparently become and what we want it to be in the future / how we can solve it.

Cheers

 

[Scott_Arm]

Problem with polls is that you have sample sizes that are way too small and sampling bias. The poll result here is basically meaningless. We might just have a whole bunch of people who are lucky and have ideal conditions that make Kinect work well, which is not the case for the majority. There's really no way to know. You can pick some reviews, but that will have the same error. You can't really look at a poll here to see how well something will work for you. You'll only know how well it worked for the people that responded.

 

[blakjedi]

Problem with polls is that you have sample sizes that are way too small and sampling bias. The poll result here is basically meaningless. We might just have a whole bunch of people who are lucky and have ideal conditions that make Kinect work well, which is not the case for the majority. There's really no way to know. You can pick some reviews, but that will have the same error. You can't really look at a poll here to see how well something will work for you. You'll only know how well it worked for the people that responded.

nah. we have a wide dispersion of users, across multiple geographical areas, receiving consoles from different, randomized manufacturing batches, with multiple accents, differing acoustic environments... outside of sample size you couldn't ask for a better test group.

 

[Aenima]

I'm not sure if you've seen my suggestions on the matter.

Xbox On is unlike the other Xbox voice commands in that it is a singular command rather than "Xbox" slight pause "command". "Xbox On", however is a singular command and there shouldn't be that same pause.

And that's because the Xbox is only ever listening for 2 things, "Xbox" or "Xbox On".

Regards,
SB

Thanks for the advice. But I did say it as a singular command already. As I mentioned, I have more luck saying "Xbox on" in a sharp tone, cutting the "on" sound short(er than I normally would). Still, even after some training since my last post, accuracy is only increased to around 33-50%.

In general I am using the voice commands much more than I expected, though. The "go to.." commands, for example, are really great voice commands, have near perfect accuracy and is saving a lot of time.

 

[Shifty Geezer]

Problem with polls is that you have sample sizes that are way too small and sampling bias. The poll result here is basically meaningless.

It is absolutely not meaningless. In the first case, the results are still relevant if not 100% representative of the wider userbase. They give a better understanding than no stats at all. But most importantly, the poll was created to address a single point of reference in another thread. The population of B3D was cited as saying that Kinect did not work well. I felt details on that matter weren't clear so created a poll to ascertain what the population of B3D's experiences were. This has now been answered. The people voting in the poll are the same people who were posting about their experiences off VC on XB1 who were being cited as saying VC was hit and miss. This poll eliminated the need to wade through posts and try and interpret them.

 

[Silent_Buddha]

It is absolutely not meaningless. In the first case, the results are still relevant if not 100% representative of the wider userbase. They give a better understanding than no stats at all. But most importantly, the poll was created to address a single point of reference in another thread. The population of B3D was cited as saying that Kinect did not work well. I felt details on that matter weren't clear so created a poll to ascertain what the population of B3D's experiences were. This has now been answered. The people voting in the poll are the same people who were posting about their experiences off VC on XB1 who were being cited as saying VC was hit and miss. This poll eliminated the need to wade through posts and try and interpret them.

Aye, I was glad when I saw the poll come up. I too was confused when the person made the claim that so many B3D users were having a lot of trouble with voice commands on the Xbox One, when I didn't get that feeling from user feedback (by owners) at all.

Regards,
SB

 

[Cyan]

You're totally right, that's why this is the only console forum I read as the others are all mostly fanboy cesspools that I want nothing to do with other than to look at for the occasional laugh. Heck I still occasionally get messaged links to fanboy forum posts from friends in the biz and we laugh while trying to figure out if these people are really this stupid or are they paid to post such nonsense. But that's why I get particularly aggravated when the fanboy nonsense starts appearing here because it will ruin this forum as well if left unchecked. Let them stay over on n4g, gaf or wherever and post whatever comic relief nonsense they want over there.

:smile: As the saying goes, let those who have not sinned throw the first stone. I am not a saint and have had my little fights over a console, even over the PC and so on. There are fanboys/fangirls who can be even fun as hell, they are just so passionate about their company of choice that start to predict gloom and doom for the competitors and they pay no heed to reason.

Others just have so limited technological knowledge that post nonsense and live happily ever after. But in my opinion neither case is the worst case of fanboy.

n4g, Neogaf, could be calm places compared to others. As I said, you would just have to read the things that I read or see how moderators favoured one side, then they began to ban Xbox users one by one before the administrators got rid of them when they realised what was going on behind the curtains. People harassing Xbox fans with private messages, with their attitude in the forums -trying to laugh at everything they said-, etc, the mods doing anything, some disabled their account forever 'cos of that, etc etc.

Then there are people who seem to expect a little check made out to the bearer by the end of each month, as if their favourite company would do that just because there are bills to pay.

Eurogamer forums are quite the sight sometimes. There are days when I don't even want to go there, and I only feel like reading Digital Foundry articles or an Ellie Gibson's review.

As I pointed out before, perhaps, just perhaps, you haven't seen that much joker454. The worst fans for me are those who are malicious by nature and try to ruin others fun, and the stealth trolling.

By that I mean people who aren't interested in the console, will never buy one, hate the competition to death, BUT post more news threads about the console they fear the most than anyone else in the forum.

How so? You might wonder... WELL, it turns out to be that those news are bad news. There were days where a single user could create between 5 and 10 news threads cherry-picking headlines or searching for headlines telling negative things about the Xbox One, this happening almost every day, without moderators acting in any way or manner.

Yet if you were a Xbox One user which was considered dangerous -by dangerous I mean intelligent for their standards- you were in great peril.

 

[Scott_Arm]

Brought my x1 to my parents' place. After calibration I have a much better success rate for "Xbox on" than at home. Don't understand it at all.

 

[blakjedi]

Brought my x1 to my parents' place. After calibration I have a much better success rate for "Xbox on" than at home. Don't understand it at all.

Acoustics, the flooring, speaker positioning... Could be anything.

 

[dagamer]

Acoustics, the flooring, speaker positioning... Could be anything.

If anything, I don't think "Xbox On" uses the same algorithm as all other voice commands since it's in low power mode. There's a clear difference in reliability as when the system is on, it is far superior at picking up voice commands that I am surprised it catches.

 

[Cyan]

Xbox One voice control will continue to improve, say Microsoft.

http://mmgn.com/xboxone/news--xbox-one-voice-commands-continuing-to-improve