"Hi TV!" - Talk is the star at Vegas tech show

By Andy Goldberg Jan 10, 2012, 18:09 GMT

Las Vegas - The talk of the town in Las Vegas this week is well, talk.

After decades of using keyboards, mice, bewildering remote controls and, more recently, touch and gestures to control our computers and various other tech devices, the time has come to use our most natural communications tool - our words and voices - to get our machines to do our bidding.

'Hi TV!' That's all you need to day to turn on Samsung's newest televisions. In case you have a mouth full of dinner, the sets also include motion control so that you can wave your hands in the air to control on screen menus.

The new line-up of TV's will allow you to adjust the volume and switch channels using your voice, as well as conducting internet searches. They even feature a built-in camera and facial recognition technology to recognize different family members and present their favourite programs.

'You now can turn on your TV simply by saying, 'Hi TV,' and you can change channels simply by talking or gesturing,' said Ethan Rasiel, a spokesman for Samsung, at this weeks Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas.

Similar technologies are also on show from Samsung rivals like LG, Sharp and Sony, while even Chinese computer maker Lenovo is getting into the market with a voice-activated set that includes Google TV technology to merge interactive content with more traditional TV fare.

Apple is widely regarded as the pioneer of the voice control trend, thanks to the Siri natural language feature, which it unveiled in its iPhone 4S late last year. But other companies have been working for years on improving the voice interface. Both Google's Android operating system and Microsoft's Xbox 360 boast voice interfaces that precede Apple's innovation.

Sceptics may regard such abilities as mere gimmicks designed by device makers to lure in customers who have not been persuaded to buy other recent TV innovations, like 3D.

It's certainly true that, with the prices of regular flat panel televisions in a downward spiral, TV makers need to find something to lure in the big spenders.

The global industry sold 247 million televisions in 2010, a 17-per-cent increase over the previous year. But swooning prices mean that TV makers are making less and less per set. According to research firm NPD, the average price of LED televisions in the US has dropped 35 per cent since 2009, and is set to plummet another 16 per cent this year.

At the same time, our ever busier lives and the lure of the internet mean we have less time for traditional TV watching, according to a study by Accenture, which found that only 48 per cent of people in the US, China, Russia and Brazil watched TV in a typical week, down from 71 per cent in 2009.

TV makers see the advent of smart TVs, which mix and match content, and perform as the central entertainment hub in the smart living room, as the solution to these problems.

But navigating the internet, or even the cable channel line-up, with just a remote control, is a daunting task even for the most tech savvy or users. And no one really wants to sit down with a keyboard or mouse to find the latest instalment of their favourite soap opera.

'If you've ever tried to check your email on a 50-inch TV, you'll know it's an unpleasant experience,' said Shawn DuBravac, the chief economist and head of research of the Consumer Electronics Association. 'I believe that 2012 is the year of the user interface.'

This 'natural interaction' will allow us to pull together 'all of the digital assets we've accumulated, all of our content, so we can organize them and search them,' he said.