Steve Ballmer

By 2010 TVs will understand spoken commands, identify the person named from your contacts, and relay a message to them.

“I guarantee, ten years from now I'm going to yell at my television set, 'Hey, Bill; did you see that putt?'”

Said on

19 April 2000 · Speech to students at George Washington University, April 2000; he went on to say the TV would recognise his voice, find Bill Gates in his contacts and relay the message

Source

Steve Ballmer's vision · The Register

Should come true

2010

How sure they sounded

I guarantee; "it will happen"

Categories

Technology

Importance

2 of 5 · About consumer electronics and voice interfaces.

Outcome

Partly right

By the 2010 deadline, Kinect for Xbox 360 (Nov 2010) let users control TV and media menus by voice. But no mainstream TV could understand a free-form remark, pick the person from your contacts and relay a message to them, as Ballmer described. A clearly weaker version arrived on time, so partial.

Evidence:

• https://www.mcvuk.com/business/ms-voice-control-ready-for-kinect-launch
• https://www.theregister.com/2000/04/20/steve_ballmers_vision/