|
|
| |
|
 |
|
|
Hands-on: Samsung Smart Interaction |
Built-in camera and microphones at the top of the screen provide Samsungs eyes and ears.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
At CES this year, one of the most interesting announcements involved Samsungs Smart Interaction, a new feature on its 2012 TVs that utilizes a built-in camera and microphones to enable you to control the boob tube just by speaking and/or gesturing to it. Ive spent the last few days doing just that, much to the amusement of my co-workers, and boy are my arms (and at least one finger) tired.
My takeaway? Smart Interaction has promise but feels half-baked and more like a gimmick than a compelling upgrade. Once the novelty wears off, its usefulness is limited (at best) to those times you dont have a remote in-hand.
And most home theater enthusiasts--you know, the people likely to be able to afford the hefty step-up premium Samsung is charging for this feature--have their universal remotes planted firmly in- or close at-hand when watching TV. If theyre anything like me, those viewers will quickly find that a thumb on the remote can do nearly everything Smart Interaction can do, and do it better and more efficiently.
Smart Interaction is available on the E8000-series plasma (I tested the 60-incher for this hands-on) as well as the ES7500 and ES8000 LED TVs. The least expensive panel with the feature is the 51-inch PS51E8000 plasma. No other TV manufacturer offers anything like it, although Microsofts Xbox 360 Kinect features like Bing Video Search come closest to the experience.
What is Smart Interaction?In addition to the built-in camera and microphones along the top frame of the TV, Smart Interaction TVs come with a Bluetooth-to-IR blaster and two different remotes: A standard multibutton clicker and a new touchpad number with just a few flush buttons and another microphone. Samsung intends the latter to be your main controller for the TV, but in practice its touchpad was so unresponsive--and its buttons so sparse--that I ended up using the standard clicker whenever I could. I wish it had a mic, too, since it really helped accuracy during voice commands.
The software to handle voice and gesture control isnt terrible, but I faced a steep learning curve and some frustrating design issues. To prevent normal conversation or movement in the room from triggering unwanted commands, I had to consciously enter voice and/or gesture command mode by saying Hi, TV or waving at the screen, respectively. If you forget to do so nothing happens. I ended up saying Hi, TV on a seemingly constant basis because the system, by design, exits gesture or voice mode rather quickly. I could never just say volume up; I had to say Hi, TV...volume up.
Once engaged, contextual prompts pop up to guide you to available voice commands (e.g., TV power off, exit, search, etc.) or gestures you can use. The general rule is that if the command isnt visible, either along the bottom of the screen or in the More Commands menu, it wont work. Voice/gesture control is available in most areas, including standard TV watching and the Smart Hub section (with all of the apps such as YouTube, etc.). But with the exception of the browser and a few Samsung-specific apps, you cant use voice/gesture control from within an app yet.
Voice controlThe two main facets, voice and gesture, share some commands and can also work in concert. Ill start with voice. Its best used for powering up/down, muting sound, entering the Smart TV menu or activating a few apps, and as long as I kept my commands to the few available options (heres a list), it usually worked.
 Available voice commands change depending on which function youre using.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
That said, when speaking to the TVs mic from the couch I often had to repeat commands, and any extra noise in the room was liable to interfere. The touchpad remotes mic was more accurate, but if Im already holding a remote anyway, Id prefer to press a button for most actions (aside from searches, see below) than use a voice command.
Voice-controlled volume (on the TV only) and channel changes (via TV or cable box) are possible by saying volume up or channel down etc., but they happen one step at a time so it takes forever. Rapidly saying volume up caused the system to misinterpret me, launching Skype or My mirror, for example. The system would almost invariably misinterpret the number I said for direct channel access; 200 (whether I said two, oh, oh or two, zero, zero or two hundred) became 100 seemingly every time. I was surprised to find that on my review sample many basic apps lacked commands; saying Netflix from the main Smart TV screen did nothing, for example.
Even when I made sure to stick to the onscreen prompts I ran into difficulties. Within an app, voice control options change; for example in Samsungs custom Family Story app the only voice options are exit and TV power off; I couldnt adjust volume on the video. Within the Web browser, saying search didnt search for a Web page; instead it caused the browser to close, opened up a whole other search all application that hit all the of the TVs services. The browser doesnt allow you to enter a URL via voice yet. All of these issues combined to make using voice search for all but the most basic commands pretty frustrating.
Voice searchThe one situation where voice control could potentially be easier than using a remote is during searches. On a TV that means skipping the onscreen keyboard used for entering keyword searches, and instead saying something like Game of Thrones directly at the TV.
Like many Smart TV suites, Samsung includes numerous video services you can search individually (but not via voice)--the only major omission is Amazon Instant. Samsung also offers a Your Video meta-search that hits a bunch of those services at once, including Netflix and Vudu but excluding Hulu Plus and your own cable/satellite TV listings. The built-in Web browser is better than any other TV-based browser, but still worse than the one on your laptop, tablet or phone (one of which is probably in the same room as the TV and just as easy to access).
I tested Samsungs voice search with both Your Video and the Web browser. Check out the occasionally hilarious results here, but the short story is that I searched successfully for a video program about 41 percent of the time and a Web term about 56 percent of the time when I talked (sternly) to the TV. Using the touchpad remotes built-in mic improved accuracy to 74 percent and 90 percent, respectively.
 The slick-looking touchpad remote has a built-in mic to improve voice control.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
Responses seemed a bit slower than on Kinects Bing Video Search, there were frequent please wait and processing notifications and a couple of outright crashes. Between these issues, the hit-or-miss success rates and the infrequency with which most people use video search or the TVs browser at all, I dont consider voice search a good reason to get a TV with Smart Interaction. Thats especially true when virtual keyboard searches on many TVs and even cable boxes are made significantly less tedious by auto-fills based on common keywords.
Gesture control
 Samsungs gesture control diagram summarizes the available commands.
(Credit: Ty Pendlebury/CNET)
Gesture control is activated by holding a hand up in front of the TV, which usually worked under brighter lighting but wasnt tolerant of shadows. Again prompts popups to show you what gestures work, and theres just a few--namely moving your hand to guide a cursor around the screen and making a fist to make a selection.
The problem was, despite excellent lighting, my attempts to activate gesture control were often ignored and I ended up waving foolishly at the TV. When it did work, navigation was inexact and frustrating--think of a coarse version of a Wiimote--and after a minute or so of it, my arm became tired. I guess that means gesture control is a good workout.
My fist-to-click didnt register as often as it should have and I ended up flapping my hand open and closed repeatedly in an attempt to click an item on the screen. At this point, I seriously considered using my fist to do something else to the TV screen.
Again the Web browser might seem like a place where gesture could be useful, but between awkward-to-impossible scrolling, inconsistent registering of virtual clicks and balky responses that seemed like crashes until I reset the system by holding my hand up, useful isnt the word Id choose.
External device control via IR blaster
 The included wireless blaster can command cable boxes and disc players, but not audio equipment.
(Credit: Sarah Tew/CNET)
Samsung included a wireless blaster that accepts Bluetooth commands from the TV and translates them into infrared commands for your settop box or a Blu-ray player, but the company neglected to provide for control of an /AV receiver or other external audio device. Among the high-end systems likely to house these TVs, that means voice and gesture control cant control volume or mute. Moreover, the commands for cable and satellite boxes are exceedingly basic--just channel changes.
In short, dont depend on Samsungs IR blaster to provide nearly the level of external device control as even the cheapest Harmony remote. Until Samsung adds audio device control and more commands (fast forward and 30-second skip for DVRs come to mind), voice and gesture control of external devices is basically a no-show.
If you deign to employ your thumb, the Touch remote works with the blaster to enable significantly more functionality, for example menu access. Its still not nearly as good as an actual universal remote, however.
Bottom line: Is it worth it?If youve read this far, you can probably guess: No. The premium for Smart Interaction in Samsungs line is between US$300 and US$500 currently, but in my view its definitely not worth paying even $100 extra to get voice and gesture control, the touchpad remote and the IR blaster. A simple Harmony remote, for example, can do everything but Web browsing and (arguably) searching better and cheaper. If you really want to use the built-in browser, get Samsungs US$99 keyboard.
Ill give it this: Smart Interaction does make a fun demo, especially when it misinterprets your speech. When another co-worker came by and realized that yes, the TV was actually reacting to my voice and gestures, he said Wow, I feel like Im living in the future. And yes, the fact that it works at all is just as impressive from a technological standpoint as, say, the Microsoft Kinect. But Samsungs version doesnt work nearly as well and until it does, owners of these TVs will be far happier keeping a tight grip on their universal remotes.
|
|
