The Problem With a Voice Controlled Television [Video]

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Posted October 28, 2011 at 4:09pm by Shalom Levytam

A voice controlled television has already been invented by the 30 Rock's Jack Donaghy (Alec Baldwin); however, his TV hilariously failed because the voice recognition worked too well, reports Gizmodo.

Donaghy's VoAct, short for Voice Activation, is so much like what we're hearing Apple's HDTV is going to be it's uncanny. TVs are hard to use because remotes suck, yadda and yadda. So Jack Donaghy shows off his new voice activated solution and the demo goes off swimmingly! 'Television on' and 'Channel NBC' work just as you imagine. SO COOL. I want this immediately. But then things go awry (as hilarious comedies tend to do).

Check it out below...

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Johan S - November 22, 2011 at 9:14am

Only two modifications are needed to make this work: 1. An echo cancellation type filter circuit that subtracts the TVs own sound .. this would eliminate the problem of the TV itself being able to trigger itself 2. Require a trigger word prior to any command so instead of just saying "Off" to turn the TV off, you would say the trigger word and then the command "off" ..like this: "TV, Off" or "TV, Discovery channel". Obviously you would make up a much rarer word than "TV" to minimize mistake commands.

Mike - October 29, 2011 at 9:13am

Lol I love 30-rock. But clearly you would have the microphone chipset linked to the TV speakers so it would know what the TV was saying at the time and ignore it.

Jeff - October 29, 2011 at 7:06pm

That doesn't solve the issue he was having. You expect people to be completely silent while their TV is on? If not the TV will do all sorts of unwanted things.

Mike - October 29, 2011 at 8:21pm

Agreed. So u would have to have a keyword too. Like "Siri" which you said before each command. Like "Siri change to channel 5"

Teslar - October 28, 2011 at 5:15pm

My money is on the TV being controlled via the iPhone. So effectively they haven't got rid of the remote. They've just replaced it with the iphone

Jared - October 28, 2011 at 5:20pm

So your prediction is that they will force people to buy a $300 remote control? Not likely.

Guest - October 28, 2011 at 5:15pm

I see a voice control TV in Back to the Future 2.

LOL - October 28, 2011 at 4:59pm

Baldwin said "Crap" and the Kardashian came up on tv. Lol

ikkyu - October 28, 2011 at 8:18pm

well spotted.

Jared - October 28, 2011 at 4:48pm

The TV would still come with a remote, and on the remote would be a button you would press to input a voice command. The TV would only listen to voice commands during that time. Problem solved.

Russell - October 30, 2011 at 8:27pm

Until you lose the remote. Which was the whole purpose of having voice control.

Jeff - October 30, 2011 at 8:39pm

No, the purpose was to be able to easily record and change channels with your voice instead of fumbling around with buttons. You will obviously still need a way to activate voice input since having the TV listen to all surrounding noise for voice commands is not exactly feasible.

Nick - October 28, 2011 at 4:20pm

The only thing you would have to do is add certain phrases before those voice commands and you wouldn't have that problem. You could easily have it filter out the sounds being broadcasted by the TV and listen solely to the individuals sitting in the room.