[January 10, 2012] Dragon TV: Change channels, search shows and tweet with no clicker [Boston Herald] Tweet (Boston Herald (MA) Via Acquire Media NewsEdge) Jan. 10--Couch potatoes soon won't even need a remote control. Dragon TV, the voice recognition and control software for televisions unveiled yesterday by Burlington's Nuance Communications at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas, will allow users to choose a channel, search for a show and even post updates to Facebook or Twitter without ever lifting a finger. "In our vision of the future, the way you interact with your car, your TV, your phone will be very consistent," said Matt Revis, Nuance's vice president of product management and marketing for mobile. "Our goal is to consolidate that." Yankee Group analyst Vince Vittore said voice-controlled TVs are this year's 3-D TVs -- a lure from manufacturers to get customers to buy new TVs after upgrading to HDTVs a few years back. But while 3-D hasn't caught on, Vittore thinks voice-controlled TVs have a better shot. "Voice control is a cool TV feature, it's better than 3-D," he said. "It brings a utility that's easy to understand without adding additional parts." Nuance is licensing the Dragon TV software platform to manufacturers, and Revis expects Dragon-equipped TVs to ship this year. He added that he doesn't know how much the feature would add to a TV's price tag. "The TV manufacturer will endeavor to keep costs down," he said. Nuance sees this as the next step in creating a "connected home." Revis said the public perception of speech-as-interface has never been stronger thanks to the introduction of Siri, Apple's voice-control program on the iPhone 4S, which also uses Nuance technology. Daniel Cummins, an analyst at ThinkEquity, said the margins on televisions would be bigger than smartphones, but not as big, potentially, as some other household appliances. "If you had a refrigerator voice-enabled, that's a multithousand-dollar appliance," he said. IDC analyst Jonathan Gaw sees the technology as a natural progression from the prevailing TV interface -- the "candy bar" remote control. "The nice thing about voice is, most people get it," he said. "You don't have to train them to double-click, for example. People know how to use their mouths." [email protected] ___ (c)2012 the Boston Herald Visit the Boston Herald at www.bostonherald.com Distributed by MCT Information Services [ Back To TMCnet.com's Homepage ]