At first glance, it may seem that the guy sat in front of the television is having a heated argument with his TV remote, but closer inspection will probably reveal that he's just trying to get the voice recognition feature to recognize his dialect. Folks similarly afflicted are about to be offered a helping hand from LG, in the shape of its newly updated Magic Remote with enhanced language recognition capabilities.
The new Magic Remote (announced ahead of CES 2013 in Las Vegas) retains the gesture, point, wheel and voice control modes of the previous model, but the latter has received a significant boost. LG says that the addition of Natural Language Recognition software allows for a more conversational approach to selecting channels, searching through menus or browsing online. The company also boasts that the "awkward pause" between voicing a command and the system taking the appropriate action has been nixed.
Elsewhere, the point feature places a mouse-like cursor onscreen and caters for click, drag and drop actions, and holds the potential to be used as a motion-based video game controller, too. The wheel is said to be perfect for browsing menus and the web, scrolling down long pages of text or zooming in and out of onscreen apps like Google Maps.
Spatial gestures are also supported. A user can, for instance, draw a number in the air while holding the remote and the system will recognize the gesture and switch the TV to the appropriate channel. Nice.
Two models have been announced, both with more intuitively-positioned buttons and optimized grip. One will ship with the company's premium CINEMA 3D Smart TVs and features LED backlit buttons in a compact design, while the other will ship with LG's standard CINEMA 3D Smart TV models. Both can also be used to control set-top boxes, Blu-ray players, sound bars and other peripherals ... making this a truly universal Magic Remote.
Source: LG
