Back at CES in January, I had a preview of the Amulet Voice Remote Control for Windows Media Center, and I have been waiting to get my hands on it ever since. Now ours has arrived and here is the unboxing.
Here is how Amulet describe the device:
The Amulet Remote is the controller Windows Media Center owners have been waiting for. Access all your media instantly using simple voice commands and gestures. No more complex key sequences to remember.
- Select media by name (Channels, Artists, Songs, Movies, TV shows, photos)
- Multiple speaker profiles, selectable by voice (“This is Pete”)
- Audio responses to questions (“This is ‘Videotape’ by Radiohead from the album ‘In Rainbows’)
- Navigate TV guide by voice (“Record ABC Next Tuesday at 7 PM”)
- Flexible operation – use voice or buttons for most operations
- Instant access to video timeline (‘Skip to 1 hour and 10 minutes”, “Skip over ads”)
- Infra-red learning – teach Amulet to control any of your other audio visual equipment
How it Works?
- You pick up the remote and speak a command such as “Play Artist Rolling Stones”.
- The built-in microphone transmits your voice to the Amulet software in your Windows Media Center.
- The Amulet remote includes advanced position sensing technology, which means that Amulet only listens when you talk to it, not when you’re chatting with friends or family. Amulet understands your commands and ignores your conversations
The box is well packaged and contains the remote control, some paperwork, a CD, cable, battery and USB dongle.
And we all know how much Diehard likes to see things next to an iPhone for size reasons, so here you are!
As you can see, the more is quite large, but I don’t see that as a problem.
You can learn more from the Amulet website.
And you see a video of it in action here:
And stay tuned for the UWHS hands-on review coming soon.
The Amulet Voice Remote retails for $259 and is available now in the US through the website and will be released in Europe early in the 4th quarter of 2010.
haha, nice touch with adding the iphone reference. The way you had it sitting right there in the unboxing made me jump for a second, it looked like it was a combo pack. Thanks. Please let me know if there are any lights on it or does it have some light sensitive paint to glow in low light. Also, it is programable to turn on my TV or Audio reciever or 360 menu control?
Wow, that video is awesome. Can it do a sexy woman's voice ? hehe. How well does it preform with your accent ? or am I the one with the accent ?
Hey, it would be cool if it would reply in a Cylon voice" By your command" but then that would get annoying.
I saw Ian Dixon's video just now, very nice. I'm assuming you will discuss this device on the next TDL podcast. From what I heard on #278, you and Garry are back on.
@diehard, there is backlighting for the transport keys which turns on automatically when you pick up the remote.
You can teach it your device codes to turn on/off TVs, amps, etc – four independent device keymaps, as well as punch-through buttons for TV on/off, Vol +/- and one additional user defined keys.
We like the voice we ship with, but any Windows SAPI voice can be used instead — lots of vendors selling custom voices now, including one company that will even make you a SAPI version of your voice if you want…!
Regards,
Eddy (Amulet Devices)
Is the device teaching done via a user interface? The skip commercials was through another media add-in, right?
Did it really understand Ian? I could use it for his podcasts.
Diehard speaks in a rushed Italian French Canadian so maybe we can find a similar voice!
@Timothy, at present, the IR learning is done on the device itself, similar to most learning remotes. You press a button sequence to enter learning mode, then you just point your old remote at a small window on the Amulet and press the key you want to teach it.
The skipping over ads is a pretty straightforward implementation; it doesn't use any third-party plug-ins.
Out of the box, Amulet uses a pretty generic speech profile that will work well with most speakers. The more an individual speaker uses it, the more the profile adapts to match that speaker.
We also support multiple speaker profiles, and provide a dedicated "profile" button (visible to the lower right of the microphone in the main photo above) to quickly switch to another profile if needed.
love it…
there's just a week and a bit left to enter the free giveaway for a remote on the AmuletDevices web site. http://www.amuletdevices.com/
thanks Steve – and watch out for our review shortly as well!