Sega interested in Project Natal voice controls

Sega’s R&D Creative officer, Toshihiro Nagoshi, was also interviewed at TGS 2009 (Tokyo Game Show).

He was interested in both speech recognition and facial expression recognition, or perhaps tone of voice recognition. So I hope that means we’re going to have a lot of Sega games we can talk to, or games where we can order people around. Or maybe we will get games that sense when you are frustrated and start swearing at the game, so the game will then make it easier or give you hints.

“Like when gaming changed from 2D to 3D the genres of gaming had also been renewed, if this new system leads to renewing the current format, I think it’s a very positive change.

“But it wouldn’t be interesting if it were just a rereun of what we already have, so I hope that it becomes something new that would move gamers.

“If it’s not the game that tells you what to do, but instead if it’s your emotions that decide how the game proceeds, I think that may be the ultimate form.

“The most innovative side to it is that its controller free, and that it focuses on voice recognition. When you play games, you’re basically saying something, whether it be pleasant or disturbing. Voices do not affect game play today [Carl: in some games they do], but I think it may be the last input source left. With or without the controller, you’re still using your hands. So I guess it’s our voice that we’ve never really used before, and I see a lot of potential in that field.”