Today Microsoft revealed the next generation of its gaming console, the Xbox One.
According to Microsoft, this is the future of entertainment, it makes your TV interactive, and provides an All-In-One (get it?) experience.
In my opinion, there is not much innovation in the new console. Honestly, the current Xbox 360 does almost all of this on a lesser scale. But then again, maybe that is what’s going to make this console so great.
The new Xbox One will take all of the capabilities of watching movies, TV, listening to music, surfing the internet, video calls, and of course playing games will all be amplified.
With the ability of running multiple apps at once and instant switching, your television experience will suddenly become very interactive.
When was the last time you actively watched a tv show? Aside from a tweet here or there, your answer is probably never.
However none of this really strikes me as particularly exciting…
What I believe has the most potential to change the way we interact with technology is the voice and hand gesture recognition equipment and software.
From watching the Xbox Reveal this afternoon, the presenter was able to use voice and hand gesture commands to navigate through the Xbox One interface and interact with applications. Now these product reveals can sometimes be a little misleading, you never really know if the presenter is actually demoing the product live or if it is being controlled remotely somewhere else. But, if the presenter was giving a live demo, you better be prepared for a massive change in the way we control technology.
The recognition of these gestures worked like he was in Minority Report. If it actually works like this, say goodbye to passive, silent, clicking of the remote control and say hello to talking and pointing at your television.
If I can find some video from the reveal, I will post it here later.
So all in all, I say the Xbox One is well… ok. But it has major potential to change the way we interact with our devices, and that’s awesome sauce.