So Close, Yet So Far With Xbox One's Kinect

I prefer text essays over these sorts of videos, but this video does demonstrate the capabilities of Kinect voice commands (and lack thereof).

Honestly, I'm not a proponent of Kinect in general, either voice or motion. I don't like the idea of using my voice as a primary navigation tool and would much rather use something like a controller or a remote that, while limited in what they can do, are more responsive and much less prone to error.

I really like this format, super well done, thanks Patrick.

Not gonna lie, this was really fun to watch. The music def added to it too. @patrickklepek I would love to see more little odd videos like this. It reminds me of that cable alchemy video from years back. Keeps things fresh every once in a while.

Nicely done Patrick. I'd love to see more 'video essays' from you in the future.

@patrickklepek It's a good video but it makes it seem like the system fails where it's user error. I don't blame anyone for making those mistakes since the voice command system is unintuitive and sometimes outright random. I would like to highlight a few things that might help you in the future when dealing with the Kinect's more arcane functions.

"Xbox Select" is a command but "Goto <app name>" is not. The command is "Xbox Goto <app name>".

When the Listening icon is active voice commands will highlight green on all parts of the screen. Only the words in green you can see will function as commands without prefacing with "Xbox <command>".

There is often a delay in processing a voice command when the listening icon has a white ring around it. I think the white ring indicates that the device is processing something. You'll see this most often just after a command has just executed. Wait for a green and you're gold.

Hope this helps.

PS: Please don't beat on Xbox when an app's voice support is shoddy. That's the fault of the app dev. (Some of which have competing hardware or software. *ahem* Google's YouTube app.)

Patrick, why did you suddenly put so much effort into making a professional=quality video feature? I don't think there's another video like this on GiantBomb. Are you showing off with an improved quality of work to get a new job? If you leave no news would ever be posted.

Video editorial? hell yah.

I think this is well suited for Patrick's newsy responsibilities from time to time, and it was well done. I'm not sure I want to see more heavily edited stuff outside that specific context, but for what this was, it was pretty good.

Really well done. Seriously, that was great.

I tend to much prefer written content to videos because its generally more concise and has something to say. This video essay did a great job of keeping that message efficiency while also being fun to watch.

I would love to see more of this in the future and expect it will catch on elsewhere.

Yay, Justified!

yes please

Really cool, Patrick. Please do more stuff like this; it's a really cool format for commentary.

Good stuff as always @patrickklepek.

I simply cannot understand how voice command design continues to lag behind given its common sense approach. How we (as users) cannot customize our own phrases to custom actions I do not understand.

I want to be able to say "Xbox, execute Riker maneuver alpha" and have that bring up season 4 of TNG.. How cool would that be?

Really enjoyed this, thanks Patrick.

Yup, more of this is.

Nice video Patrick! I like this feature!

Yes. This is a great video with interesting commentary. Hope to see more videos like this. Keep up the good work, Patrick!

That was really well done. Good job Patrick! The music choice was great too.

This was incredibly damning because of the even handed nature of the critique as well as the amount of time between launch and this video. If they haven't got this stuff figured out and synced with with common apps like Netflix then what good is something like voice command or Kinect anyway?

I was very excited about Kinect at one time, but now it just seems like some last gen failed hardware.

Say what you're searching for.

I'm really liking this Patrick. Just enough production, what with the music and all, to where it kept my attention without needlessly overdoing it with graphics and such. It's at a good length too I think: it doesn't feel like a summarized version of the article you could've written and not too long to where it feels like a full on feature. Great job!

Awesome, I would love to see more stuff like this Patrick.

Next page.

Really enjoyed this and I would love to see what else you could do with this format.

I use my Kinect for voice commands all the time, and have very few problems with it. It's incredibly useful when I need to mute or pause the program I'm watching if I'm engaged in another activity, such as commenting on a video online. Of course there are some awkward design choices which force you to use a controller, or are much simpler with one, but they don't sour the experience on the whole. As far as the Netflix app is concerned, every Netflix app is garbage and a pain to navigate, including their own website.

I liked this.

A little to NPRish for my taste but still damn good. More please!

I really liked this! Your tone and style of speech make it a pleasure to listen to. It adds some nice variety to the generally bombastic tone stuff here tends to take.

Great Video Patrick! Jazz huge plus

This was excellent and made me want even less kinects in my life.

Hooray for video essays!

I really like this! Nice work, Patrick!

I like the format and would enjoy seeing more content like this.

EDITED CONTENT FROM GB CHICAGO??? THE DEVIL, YOU SAY!

@patrickklepek You made me comment on an article/video for the first time on the site(possibly any site in years), just to say it was a pleasant surprise and I would like to see more.

Liked, Commented, Subscribed.

This was cool. More please, Patrick.

Great video! I definitely would love to see this type of feature more often.

Classy, eloquent, and entertaining.

I definitely want more content like this!

Great video so please do more of this patrick.

I want to see more stuff like this. I am letting you know in the comments.

What is this?

More of this.

Knocked it out of the park!

More content is always a good thing!

This seems like a really slick and interesting feature, which is not surprising in the least.

Hell yeah I want more of this. It kinda reminds me of NPR.

Sure, I'll watch more of this. So long as it has that sweet jazz music.

If there is one thing motion control demonstrated is that controlling device are easier and faster with discrete control like a classic remote. Voice recognition has been tried for now 10 years on PC and still hasn't caught on, Dragon Naturally Speaking works perfectly and flawlessly, it puts that expensive Kinect to shame and yet nobody cared, cares or will ever care, it will only catch on the day that thing reads your mind, because so far moving a mouse, clicking a button is less effort and faster than speaking words. Just try it, it takes less than a second to click on Windows Start Menu, any combination of words that would bring the Start Menu takes twice as much time, saying Internet Explorer, Firefox or Chrome takes more time than clicking the damn thing.

In short. Voice recognition doesn't solve any problem, it just creates more.

Haha, great music choices!

Was anyone else enjoying this video almost souly for the Jazz until the cheesy horror music kicked in?

This seriously rules.