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

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.

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

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

Nice video Patrick! I like this feature!

Yup, more of this is.

Really enjoyed this, thanks Patrick.

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

yes please

Yay, Justified!

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.

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.

Video editorial? hell yah.

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.

@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.)

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

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.

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

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.

more more more

Enjoyed the video Patrick

More, Patrick! More!

The music could have been taken down a notch, but it was good.

Nice job @patrickklepek. You're on to something here!

I enjoyed this.

Loved the video, Patrick!

More please.

@patrickklepek I wanna see more stuff like this. Nice video, Scoops!

Watching someone navigating menus is all we've ever really wanted.

Incredibly well done, looking forward to more features like this!

Oh snap I didn't realize Godzilla movies got added to Netflix!

Anyway, it does seem like the Netflix app was not nearly as well designed as the Amazon app. And that it seems like MS really wants you to use Bing to search on this thing.

I liked it a lot Scoops!

My only criticism would be that the music seemed mixed a little high, but nobody else seems to have mentioned it, so it's possible it was just my setup.

Really enjoyed this. It was really a great mesh of the things you'd typically write in an article with complementary video to aid in getting your point across. Would love to see more.

Absolutely one of my favorite pieces of content you have produced. I would love to see much more. I think what really pulled it together is the background music, instead of just talking. Amazing show of talent and proof of concept, Patrick!

EDIT: NPR is <3

I see what you're saying, and I get it. I got an Xbox as a gift a few days ago and had the same issues, however once you realize how to actually do it, its very fluid. For instance you don't say Xbox select, then goto Netflix. You either say Xbox select then Netflix of its on the page, or alternatively just say Xbox go to Netflix. I think the next page fiasco is a problem of the voice service not being ready to take another input, which makes sense because realistically you would take that few seconds to read the titles. Just my thoughts.

Video examinations of videogame related stuff could be cool.

Neat video. Next page.

It would be great to see more stuff like this. Absolutely fantastic.

This is an interesting content format. Keep experimenting with it.

Fantastic, would definitely like to see more of these kind of videos!

I absolutely want to see more stuff like this.

@asiwassaying: I tried Dragon Naturally Speaking a long time ago(no idea how good the software is now) and i remember it having a pretty extensive trainer to recognize your voice. I feel like that's the only thing holding Kinect back in that people want things simple(don't want to go through hours of set-up), yet it will never be able to be as good unless it can recognize subtle differences in everyone's voice.

I loved this, Scoops. i hate to admit it but even when an essay is on a topic i am really interested in...i usually won't read it. im lazy like that. but i would watch ones like this that were 10 times as long if you had it in you. Keep it up.

@vinny said:

Yes, please.

Nice job!

I like it Patrick. Well I'd like it more if Kinect worked better =)

Yes, I want more video content like this. I also want the podcast in video! COME ON GUYS!

Good stuff Patrick.

I'll just cut to the chase: this is an interesting approach to essays involving video games that I enjoyed very much, but the choice of music sounds way too close to what NPR uses. It's not irritating to the ear, but it doesn't feel in spirit of what Giant Bomb is, and the entire time I thought this should just be on NPR instead. But this is a new thing you are experimenting on, and I'm sure you will find out how to make this unique to this site and yourself. Still, great job with this experimentation, and hopefully there are plenty of untouched fronts (in video games) that this style of reporting can roll on.

@patrickklepek Just drilling down on this a bit, I thought for a second you were being disingenuous there at the beginning, but I don't think that's your style. To be clear, when you say "Xbox Select" then only the green words onscreen will be recognized. So you should have simply said "Netflix", not "Go to Netflix" as you did. So, 'Xbox Select' - 'Netflix' or 'Xbox go to Netflix'. Your concantenation of the two is never going to work. However as @wandrecanada has said below, it really isn't intuitive, so you're not to blame. Like you I love using voice commands, whether it is on my Xbox One or iPhone. Talking to machines; It's the future baby!

@wandrecanada said:

Loved this video feature Patrick, please make more videos like this! Also anyone got a source on that backing track?