Unlike theXbox One’s philosophy with Kinectvoice commands that control everything from turning on the console to searching the online store,the PlayStation 4’s camera / mic arraycan only interpret a handful of relatively basic voice commands. The console can’t be “woken” while in standby mode by voice, for instance, nor can you command a video playing on Netflix to pause. In fact, at launch, none of the third-party apps on thePlayStation 4will allow for voice commands — something Sony reps tell us they “hope” more apps will integrate in the future. The consolecanbe turned off using voice, and you can command it to open games.
At Sony’s big PS4 review event in New York City this week, few of the commands were demoed, and zero gesture commands were shown. Outside of facial recognition for logging in, it looks like Sony’s next game console isn’t focusing too much on competing with Microsoft on a point-by-point basis in terms of camera / mic-based input.
