It seems not even the impending holiday is stopping some of the tech industry's heavy hitters from teasing their standout products for the 2014 CES. First LG and Samsung unveiled separate 105-inch curved UHD TVs on the same day, and now Samsung is dropping some details on its Smart TVs for next year. In addition to less complicated voice commands, the company's 2014 Smart TV line will allow the use of "finger gestures" for basic controls like changing the channel, adjusting the volume, or rewinding video.
The improved voice command system cuts down on how many specific commands need to be given for certain controls, so users can interact with the TV much more quickly. For example, instead of saying "change channel" followed by "channel number [fill in the blank]" to switch to a new station, viewers can now just say the channel number on its own.
Samsung's current crop of Smart TVs already feature voice commands attuned to the native languages of 11 different countries, but the 2014 models will raise that number to 23 to reach a wider market. Additionally, searching the internet with voice commands will cause a window showing their results to pop up on the bottom of the screen, so they can keep watching video at the same time.
The most prominent new feature however is an enhanced gesture control system that only requires the use of one finger. According to Samsung, users will be able to cycle through menus and channels by pointing at the display and making certain movements. So far though, the only specific gesture the company has mentioned is that moving your finger in a counterclockwise motion will stop a video or scroll backwards through selections on the screen.
Unfortunately Samsung seems to only be offering a small taste of what's to come, since those are the only details it's revealed for the time being – no word on a price or release date for any of its new Smart TVs just yet. It seems we'll have to wait until CES in January to find out anything more.
Source: Gizmag, Samsung
