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

When a man wants to watch a few Godzilla movies without using his hands, Kinect just won't make it easy.

May. 6 2014

Posted by: Patrick

In This Episode:

Xbox One

Kinect Support

569 Comments

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Nac

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Yup. Really digging this!

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Ataxia

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Throwing my voice along with the masses here, but this was a great video Patrick. The way you talk about stuff works perfectly with this format, keep it up! P.s. it might just be the jazzy background music making everything better!

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bkbroiler

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Edited By bkbroiler

This is great.

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timeshero

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Edited By timeshero

@patrickklepek: I find the Google Now service seems to understand me quite well!

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T0MBraider

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This video seems more of a complaint about the crapy apps

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chilibean_3

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Edited By chilibean_3

Pretty slick video, Patrick.

I'm also a fan of Kinect. It's so nice when it works right but you feel like a jerk as soon as something takes 5x longer using voice than it would with a controller. Seems like more of an interface issue than a hardware issue most of the time for me.

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jwkang

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Good job Patrick!

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korwin

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This is some great content man, not to long and covers the subject matter well.

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Sneis

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Edited By Sneis

I would like to see more stuff like this. Seems like a really cool format.

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dream431ca

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More Patrick!! More!!!!!!

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jynxdaddy

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On the front page there is no way to tell that this is a feature. It looks like a trailer or promo video from a publisher.

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bassman2112

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This was a great little feature, Patrick (= Please keep these up, I'd love to see what other stuff you could show off.

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rcath

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great!

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ViciousBearMauling

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This was great!!!!! Love this kind of content and want more of it!

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Volgin13

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Edited By Volgin13

I want more

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BagronkeN

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I love this. Just as you are a "weirdo who likes to use his voice in technology", I'm a weirdo who likes to watch and listen to content instead of reading it.

So, yes, moar please :)

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ThePilgrums

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Edited By ThePilgrums

More stuff like this, definitely. Enjoyed this a lot.

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hollitz

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Very nicely done, Patrick. Would love to see more video essays like this.

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Pop

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Next page! Next page! Yeah, it's just stupid that you can't search in Netflix with your voice. I was expecting Patrick to play a kinect game.

This was cool Patrick, short and to the point, I like it, make more with interesting stuff.

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Sergio

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A lot of devices are doing voice controls in some fashion, not just Xbox One and smart phones. I'd love to see someone do a comparison between them. I'm sure @patrickklepek can expense a new Samsung Smart TV.

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ScaryShark

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Great job Patrick!

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Pilzi

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Edited By Pilzi

I really, really loved this. It would certainly thrill me to see more in this style on the site.

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BinaryDragon

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this is really cool.

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paulunga

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Edited By paulunga

This was surreal. Edited video content on Giant Bomb? Crazy.

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etrips3

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Patrick, I nod to you! I kinda want information like that in the morning while I'm making breakfast so this is a feature well welcomed from me! You're doing a great job!

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joey

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I like it I like it

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dprabon

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This was great. I like this type stuff. As long as you keep up Spookin' With Scoops, I think this type stuff would be very entertaining ( :

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DevourerOfTime

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Loved it the video! (next page) Really hoping we see (next page) more in the future like it (next page), Patrick. Would love to see not (next page) just written content and live recorded content (next page), but a little bit more (next page) edited and structured video (next page) content.

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Blue_Eon

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Call me cynical, but I don't see the need for voice at this point in time. Most of the things Kinect can do, you can do faster with a controller. What I'd like to see, which is something no company seems to want to work on, is a better method for actually inputting text. That keyboard add-on for the 360 controller actually seemed kind of cool. I never actually used it, but the idea of it is great. Until voice recognition gets to a point where it's just as good as using a controller, if not better, then we're going to need better ways of entering in text. Predictive text is nice, but it's not a 100% accurate solution. I think Microsoft just got too ambitious with Kinect and rushed both versions of it, trying to be the first one in the living room with voice recognition, when no one really asked for it.

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roboculus92

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Edited By roboculus92

I thought that this was great. As others have mentioned, this format helps to convey what you're trying to say about Kinect much clearer than text could.

I know that a lot of people tell Microsoft to just get rid of the Kinect for a price drop (which I view as a short-term solution, similar to if Nintendo dropped the gamepad from the Wii U) but I see some potential in it and I'm hopeful that they will be able to sort out a bunch of these kinks over the coarse of the generation (we still got at least 5-6 years before new consoles). The biggest issue you seemed to run into in this video was that a number of the apps just aren't properly designed with voice control in mind (possibly because they weren't made by Microsoft). The bing search seemed to work pretty well so it's not like it can't be done, they just gotta change a bunch of those apps.

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Homeslice

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Man...@patrickklepek has gotten so good so fast...I anxiously await the next short editorial with Deadly Premonition music.

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rekon

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I think it's pretty clear already but I'd like to add to the fire and say that we need more videos like this. Short, sweet, and gets the message across in a professional and subjective manner.

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transwave

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Rad!

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kerse

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This is a pretty nice video, background music sounded a little strange though lol, maybe thats just me.

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Hadoken

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Video editorial, nice. Everythings coming up Milhouse!

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Torwegia

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Great piece, very well done!

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MeatSim

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A real page turner.

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budgietheii

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1) Great video Patrick, would happily watch more of this sort of thing.

2) As others have said, the issue at the front is a bit disingenuous when it's user error but they do do a poor job of teaching the syntax of kinect voice use. There is a kinect tutorial in the app store that they suggest you go to during the initial setup, but I know a lot of people wouldn't ever use that.

To be clear, xbox select is really the make do to use voice in parts of the interface that are more designed for a controller. When in xbox select mode just say the green text (this is explicitly instructed in the tutorial, but again, who uses a tutorial). The whole point of xbox goto is that it works from anywhere and doesn't require the app to be on screen.

3) Glad you highlighted how good the bing search is. Which leads into

4) The title suggests Kinect is flawed hardware, when all these issues are software and interface design based. As the bing bit shows, when it's just free form interpreting what you say it gets it right >90% of the time.

5) The apps are inconsistent in their design, and often don't use voice as well as they should. What would be really interesting to find out now is where the 'blame' lands for that? Is this Microsoft not providing the tools for voice based search within apps, or are they just not using it. Is Netflix's lack of title name selection c.f. Amazon due to laziness, is that an easy toggle available to apps or does it only exist in Amazon because they were prepping it for the Fire TV box?

6) A good stopgap for those lamenting a good text input mechanism. Ever device under the sun has a smartglass app. Startup and connect times are still longer than ideal but if you know you've got a complicated bit of text to enter it's easily the best way.

But, most importantly, great video Patrick. Look forward to more.

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schnoo

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Good job Patrick

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Pudge

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This is the best thing you've ever done on the site Patrick. Keep doing these.

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ChosenOne

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Yes, more.

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Danniku

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@blue_eon said:

That keyboard add-on for the 360 controller actually seemed kind of cool. I never actually used it, but the idea of it is great.

The keyboard add-on for the controller worked pretty well, actually...if you have tiny fingers and are used to the layout of laptop keyboards. Thankfully I do have tiny fingers, but my brother-in-law does not, so for the first few weeks of him actually getting it, we had a few arguments and issues. He seems to have adapted to it alright after a while though, so that's one thing, and it is incredibly convenient to have when you're searching for something or composing a message to someone.

The only complaint I have is that no matter how long you have it for, you never get used to the feeling of having to squint at the keyboard to remember which colour you needed to press to access certain icons, or the feeling that you're going to rip your controller apart when you actually want to take the keyboard off. That, and the keyboard makes an already bulky controller even bulkier, so my tiny hands had fun while typing, just not while playing.

Anyway, very nice video, Patrick. Got a good laugh out of me, although I have to agree that sometimes the audio track was a little loud and overpowering for your voice.

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isomac

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This was great. I hope making these aren't too time consuming.

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Salvatron

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That was great!

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rattybiscuit

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I really liked the format and length here - nice one Patrick

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thevamp25

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Nice, like to see more.

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KyleBsure

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Great stuff Scoops!

Would love to see more of these videos as the inevitable dashboard updates start rolling out.

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5grand

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This is awesome! Love the way that Giant Bomb keeps on innovating. Great job Patrick!

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Landmine

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More stuff like this is great.

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rmanthorp

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Edited By rmanthorp  Moderator

Wowee this is good stuff! I'm happy to see more of this but I don't want articles to ever go away...