Sometimes when you’re watching TV, even the slightest of movements feels like the most colossal of achievements. Let’s say you’ve DEFINITELY not wasted your life on a three-hour “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives” marathon on Food Network and want to change the channel to Speed for a four-hour block of “Dumbest Stuff on Wheels” – but you don’t feel like reaching for the remote. What’s an American with terrible taste in TV to do? Well, if Google has their way – and they ALWAYS do – you won’t need your “clicker” anymore.
According to the Los Angeles Times:
In what could be the biggest boost to couch potatoes since the remote control, Google Inc. is developing a technology that would allow a viewer to tell a TV, by voice, to change the channel or even seek out a favorite show or movie.
The first steps of making all this a reality are already being taken by some of the biggest names in the tech industry: Google, Sony Corp., Samsung Electronics Co., LG Electronics Inc., Microsoft Corp. and Apple Inc.
The Google TV software, available on set-top boxes and Internet-connected TVs, includes a feature that allows viewers to search the Web using voice commands spoken into a handset.
As a kid, when daydreaming about the future, I fantasized not of world peace or a cure for the common cold, but of a time when I could watch “Nick Arcade” for nine hours without moving a muscle. Sadly, they canceled “Nick Arcade” 15 years ago, but the idea itself remains: WE SHALL CALL IT “LA-Z-BOY.” Or if that’s already taken, I dunno, TVoice? It’ll go great with my recliner/toilet hybrid.
