The Verge Exclusive video: our first look at Xbox One's voice-activated dashboard

[spenser.d]

Microsoft's been fairly cagey with the Xbox One dashboard experience up until now, but I got the chance to play with the system while I was in Redmond working on our look at the new Xbox's platform and TV integration. And I was allowed to go deep: platform engineering manager Jeff Henshaw let me log into the system using my personal gamertag, personalize the system, and basically do whatever I wanted. Logging in was ridiculously impressive: the Kinect instantly recognized me and dropped me into my dashboard without any delay. It's both intensely cool and somewhat terrifying; the Xbox One identifies you by your skeleton, and can even see you in pitch black darkness. I could have done this entire demo in the dark, according to Kinect development manager Kareem Choudhry.

If you're familiar with the 360, nothing about the Xbox One dashboard is going to surprise you ? I was bouncing around using the controller comfortably in seconds. But Microsoft is betting heavily on voice recognition, which is now always active as a system-level process, and that's where things get interesting. You can now do all sorts of things just by talking to the Xbox: I called called up the One Guide TV listings and changed channels, opened Internet Explorer and navigated to The Verge, and jumped right back into Forza Motorsport 5, which resumed instantly as though I'd never been away. The commands weren't perfect, though ? I had to repeat myself a few times, and there's definitely a small learning curve to the exact cadence that works best. You can't be in the middle of a sentence and just say "Xbox, watch TV," for example ? you have to pause before issuing the command. Henshaw says picking up the right flow takes most people about 30 minutes.

As for responsiveness, there were a few more loading screens and wait cursors than I expected, especially doing things like snapping apps and loading the One Guide. That said, I was playing with a beta unit almost a month before launch, so I'll give the Xbox team the benefit of the doubt for now; things are bound to speed up. There was also the issue of Comcast's UI showing up as part of the live TV experience, but I've already gone into extreme detail about that; it's just part of the solution for now. And after the demo ended, I made a quick Skype call and watched the Kinect follow me around the room, cropping the 1080p frame down to 720p to zoom in on me. Again: very cool, somewhat ominous.

Overall, though, the Xbox One's dashboard seems smooth and cohesive in a way that previous-gen consoles simply don't. I have my doubts about actually using all these voice commands when I'm actually in my own living room, but this is the first time I've ever considered it. We'll see what it's like when it launches in a couple more weeks.

http://www.theverge.com/2013/11/8/5080874/exclusive-video-xbox-one-dashboard-hands-on-first-look

Video at the link. You can see him struggle with some voice commands and it sounds like there's about a 30 minute learning curve with them, but overall it still looks as smooth as the Microsoft demo.

[trooper11]

A good demo of the tech.

 

It definitely shows that MS has improved the experience and interactions from the 360. 

 

Voice commands are a tricky thing to get working reliably and quickly, so I'm not shocked there are still some hiccups, but it sounds much improved.

[vcfan]

Jose Pinero, senior director of marketing and public relations for Xbox, claimed, "Everything you're seeing here is going to get better."

"Right now, we're still a couple of weeks away but voice, the more you use it and the more the system learns, the more accurate it becomes. We're still working on fit and finish."

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=243924026

[trooper11]

Good to hear they are still working on it.

 

The whole voice learning system is pretty cool.  Its something that has been around a while and it really can make the system work better over time just hearing you speak.

[George P Global Moderator]

I think it was said somewhere that the verge demo was on an older build compared to the one MS showed themselves which was recorded on a build from November 1st.   

[spenser.d]

I think it was said somewhere that the verge demo was on an older build compared to the one MS showed themselves which was recorded on a build from November 1st.

Yep, between that, and the fact that the guy was doing this for the first time, I think it'll be a pretty excellent experience, even with some initial hiccups.

[Dot Matrix]

Microsoft needs to bring this voice technology to PCs... 

 

 

"Computer: Tea, Earl Grey, Hot."  :laugh: