Microsoft has signed an agreement with voice interface developers Fonix to bring a speech recognition engine to Xbox.

During the second half of 2002, Fonix will provide the official Xbox Development Kit (XDK) to developers in the languages of U.K. English, French, German, Italian, Japanese, Korean, and Spanish to allow the creation of games that recognise the user’s voice for interaction with the game environment. . .

“With the powerful technology behind Xbox, artists are able to attain their creative goals and realise their creative visions,” said J Allard, General Manager, Xbox Platform, Microsoft. “Fonix voice recognition will play a significant role in future Xbox game development, making the games more interactive and user friendly.”

Future games that will make use of the voice recognition software will utilise a microphone/headphone combo set such as the Xbox Communicator, which plugs into a slot on the controller, and will be available as an optional peripheral later in the year.

Filed under: News

Like this post? Subscribe to my RSS feed and get loads more!