Voice control gadgets are not yet a very common things overall especially because primarily they are used today in some outdoor devices. For instance car companies like to install voice controlled computers as driver needs to keeps his hands on the steering wheel or smartphones have such feature so you don't need to scroll while walking or doing something else. Fair enough, but the question is whether people will enjoy such things at home, with no haste. Amulet Devices have recently presented their new voice control gadget which belongs to home space. It is an Amulet Remote and what it does is interesting to watch, but just may be not so interesting to live with everyday.Amulet voice-enabled remote control comes in package with special software for Vista Media Center. All together they provide a full control over it with voice only. All menus, libraries, files can be played, paused, stopped by a voice command. Let's look at the upsides of it first. Telling your Vista Media Center what to do and in which folder to go is surely entertaining at least for the first time. Then you find out that it is also a really very fast way to navigate thru all the menus, submenus, etc. As you get used to Amulet Remote, it will navigate even faster. As a safety measure and so user doesn't give an irrelevant command to Vista Media Center, remote itself "listens" only after voice mode is enabled and a green indicator lit on it. Playing some prerecorded programs or a movies, it is possible to skip named time or to skip commercial broadcast. Also if TV is off but the music is playing, a small touchsceen on the device shows some info on that.
All of these make sense of buying an Amulet Remote, but before you do, you have to be certain if it is OK for you speak to the remote rather then to push buttons. That is a tricky thing for me because knowing its price, I'm not so sure I want one. Amulet Devices will ship the smart remote for 299 USD starting in March. For end users it will take some time to get used to this sort of thing I suppose. Anyway, once Amulet Remote is ready to work, it already gives me a clue on how to improve it. As it was said before, remote is ready for a voice command after you have enabled it, why then, basing on official video below, to apply to it every time saying: "Amulet, go to TV programs." which could be annoying. But if the command is correct, then it replies: "TV programs" which is annoying all the time. While Vista Media Center is loading requested folder you could have a written notice for example. Hope it will be fixed or at least it could be turned off. However with Amulet Remote a privilege of having the remote can be lost, everyone can just say what program to watch.
