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

This was great! Keep it up.

I've never actually used a Kinect before but this video shows that it's not so much the speech that's the issue as it seems to understand Patrick just fine, it's the software and interface that seem to get in the way of the experience and that's not an Xbox exclusive problem. Hopefully with Cortana coming to Xbox in the future, it'll be able to "talk" with these apps better to give users a much more pleasant experience than just making them feel frustrated and reach for the controller.

I give it five <>'s.

More stuff like this! Please!

GOJIRA!

I remember Jeff did something like this trying to navigate with the Kinect at his house. Things have not improved I see.

Thanks for all the kind comments so far, everyone!

I guess I never realized the Kinect cared whether you said "go to" when it's in "select" mode. Really poor design. "Go to" isn't serving a different function at that point. It's why I really enjoy some of the smaller touches in Siri. For example, when you're confirming whether to send a text message, you can say "yes" or "yeah" or "yup" and it will, generally speaking, know it's the same thing. One of Kinect's biggest hurdles right now is that what does work requires oddly specific use of language.

Except for the Hearthstone edit in the middle being a bit rough that was some smooth shit overall, i'm into it.

So the kinect is still crappy. Okay

I loved this video and want more of this stuff. I'm a big fan of your written content, but having a video like this is like the best of what Giant Bomb traditionally does with the stuff you do that I like the most.

I wouldn't want this every time, and frankly I think if you tried to make this a regular feature you'd risk soapbox style content like the Jimquisition (though I enjoy Jimquisition a whole lot) and I don't think that suits the tone of the website. However you proceed with it, and even if it doesn't evolve to my personal tastes - I think this is a fine direction and I admire that you keep trying new shit.

This was great Patrick! keep these coming!

Fantastic video. I'd love to see more of these.

Patrick do more of this!

Great article and really sums up my feelings on using Kinect and its value. It's worked great for me, but developers aren't using it very well at all. Most of the problems mentioned here could be solved by app developers who actually use the apps they're making to see that basic use cases aren't being satisfied when the implementation is simple.

Love to see more of this type of stuff patrick.

I'm really happy to see that you have a lot of MST3K recommended to you on Netflix.

This was surprising and refreshing. Excellent job sir.

I use kinect and siri daily as well. I actually think it isn't far off from being a great navigation tool for the xbox one. Also I want more of these kinds of videos

I liked this video Patrick!

Nice video, @patrickklepek, but could I suggest maybe some sort of reference to this being a feature in the title? I almost missed it cause I thought it was just gonna be an ad, that could just be me though.

Giant Bomb with a higher production value sure is different! Good job on the video Patrick.

GiantBomb!

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That was a nifty video, and I want to see more stuff like this.

Also very similar to my own thoughts on Kinect. It works often enough to be magical - I can walk through the door in the morning, tell the Xbox to turn on, and start watching a movie, or at least get a game fired up and loading, all while I'm travelling between spaces doing my typical routine of getting dressed in sloucher clothes, feeding the cat, and feeding myself. Then there's the times where you can repeat yourself four times, adopting a more robotic monotone voice each one in hopes it will understand this time, and realize the button press would have taken a split second. I've also had the console be turned on through normal conversation where no one said anything close to "Xbox - on!"

I'm confident that MIcrosoft can get there with it, though. If you have a Windows Phone and have installed the 8.1 update, you get Cortana - a cross between Google now and Siri - and I'm amazed at how well that voice recognition works. Maybe it has something to do with the proximity of the mic on the Kinect and cross-traffic with all sorts of room noise, or maybe the two don't yet share the same voice search tech.

@oldskooldeano: Yeah, learning all the commands (and what isn't a command) definitely helps. It's not a perfect system, but when I'm watching a movie at a friend's house I find myself wanting to say xbox pause more often that not.

Yes! Moar of dis!

Thumbs up for video essays! Very nice.

all it takes is a vinny endorsement and you close 200 comments :3

i probably need to watch this now tbh.

I loved it. I specially loved the music selection. fuck yeah I want some more.

Video was great! I'd be interested to see where you take this format.

I hit a snag the other day with voice commands. I was carrying dinner around and launched the blu-ray player app with my voice. Upon launching I was immediately taken to a prompt to confirm installation of a mandatory update. This screen had no voice support. BAH.

It's the little things that add up over time, though I'm hopeful Microsoft will continually iterate and improve upon voice integration and UI.

Good stuff. More please.

Wow Patrick! Great job. That is some Vinny level shit with the music and stuff. Definitely want to see more like this.

That's real, real good, Patrick. Very yes. So wow. Please more.

That was a really good video with some nice editing in an enjoyable short form. Would definitely enjoy more content like this.

@patrickklepek I would love to see more stuff like this, though I would love to see you experiment more with quickly put together videos that help present you with information you've found and want to convey. How long did it take you to throw that piece together? I definitely appreciate and like pieces like this that are more formal and thoughtful than you and Alex spitting out opinion, but if the time and effort involved put a serious crimp in content output... I'm not sure if I prefer them over the typical article. Written articles are definitely going out of style, and I love the potential alternative that this video points to, I just wonder at the opportunity cost of getting one of these videos over an article or two.

If you come up with something that takes as much time as producing an article I think it would an incredible way to bring in freelance "articles" onto Giant Bomb. Something that brings in an inherent personality to the topic at hand, even if it's a voice. Man wouldn't it be cool to have one of Cara's articles turned into something that puts more of her voice forward?

Loved this video. I want to see more stuff like this!

These kinds of video essays are, in my opinion, a perfect fit for the site. They fill a nice niche between the longer, more free-form quicklooks/streams and the kinds of tightly edited, structured videos you'd find elsewhere on the net.

Gotta love that Premiere.

I really like this! A little sidechain compression of the background music wouldn't be amiss, but pretty much everything else makes me want another one.

It's fucking weird but as shown in the video the most impressive voice stuff on the Xbox One is when you bing something. It's the only place where it seems like it's actually listening to the words you are saying and not key phrases. It's more like Google's voice search. Wish they could implement that tech into the places where they want you to use the onscreen keyboard thing.

Keep it coming with these videos.

This is exactly the format and style of video that has been missing from Giant Bomb for the last 4-5 years. THIS is the kind of well-produced content I want to see. Setting up a live stream and pressing play might be fun to do and easy on the production crew, but there's something to be said for more concise, well produced content.

I'm going to join the chorus of praise by saying, YES. This was awesome. You described kinect perfectly, and ran into the same issues I run into. Yeah, Bing is quite impressive, but that's about it. I loved the video feature, Keep em coming! :)

i rarely leave comments but wanted to say how much i enjoyed the format of this video

I must say that this feels like the kind of videos you should be doing. You have a point, you use the video to show it and you manage to keep me interested for the duration of the video. Kudos!

I very much enjoyed this.

More like this! This was awesome!

Nicely done patrick.

I really enjoyed this. Would love to see more videos like this about other non-video game video game things.

Keep it up scoops!

More videos like this please.

This was fucking great! Very strange to see a video like this on the site but I love it!

That was definitely some smokey sax. Fine work therefor hurrah for Patrick!

Next page.

@patrickklepek

Alright Patrick, I'm going to be flatout 100% honest with you. I love what you have to say about this industry and the technology within it but I'm just too damn lazy to read articles.

This format is absolutely spectacular. It takes very little time to digest what is being presented and it does so in a clean and entertaining way.

I'm not aware of any sites that do vidacles like this and if the whole team switched to something like this it'd be a great way to communicate with us. I know I'm not the only one that watches every single video you guys post because I really just like what you guys have to say and hearing your voices. Its much more interactive.

Adding one more video feature to your guys' arsenal would help to share what you have to say to the community as well as make it very easy for members to show these vidacles to their friends and even possibly gain new members.

That was cool, keep doing more stuff like this!

I liked the tone and pace! More stuff like this? Yup. Yes. Yes. Xbox yes. Yes.