Possible hands-free feature (voice activation) and concerns

[Alex Blast]

I know that there are many of you Cortana fans out there would really love to activate Cortana just by saying a command without touching the phone. This means Cortana must always listen, which also means the microphone must be on at all time. So the question is: Who is taking a beating? DING DING DING to the ones with the answer: The battery. I know that many of us users have some trouble with the short battery life,especially those who have to charge their phones up to 3 times a day like myself. I'm also worried if the phone could get heated up when you put it in your pocket and go under the sun for long periods, for example. This feature is neat - true - but if it is implemented someday, what can Microsoft do to deal with the battery problem? Any ideas, guys?

 

[Amrykid]

I was thinking that such a feature would only be available if the phone is plugged in to a charger or a dock (for cars). Otherwise, we may need to have dedicated hardware for a feature (see the Moto X with it's dedicated DSP for Google Now).

 

[Alex Blast]

yep. that's why it's impractical, somewhat. But I still like the idea of voice activation. It makes Cortana much more humanlike. Much consideration is going to be taken into were Microsoft to implement it for real. It's very likely this feature will be implemented, since it is getting a lot of appreciation and support on Microsoft's Cortana Uservoice page.

 

[Alex Blast]

People who don't own cars, for example, a cyclist like myself, may want to give Cortana orders while cycling, maybe through a headset. On a bike, without a dock... You get the picture.

 

[AR2186]

Just an FYI, you don't have to kill the battery to do it. The Snapdragon 800 has a specialized processor that can basically listen with very low power consumption, so the battery doesn't have to die.

http://phandroid.com/2014/03/10/omnirom-developer-activates-snapdragon-800-always-listening-core/

 

[Alex Blast]

But that's one specific processor isn't it?

 

[nidO#WN]

Yes, and the fact that most current phones don't have a processor capable of doing that is the whole reason Cortana doesn't currently do this. AFAIK the idea is that this feature will be coming later, presumably when a decent range of phones support the ability to listen without hammering the battery.

 

[Alex Blast]

heh... probably... Anyway, let's focus on current phones instead. A guy commenting on an idea on Cortana uservoice came up with an idea, which is kind of possible. Here's what he said:
Christian Peterson:
This should def be a feature where in the settings it can be set to always listening(on 24/7), driving mode only(when driving (using speedometer to determine)), or charging mode only (turns on only while charging). You should also have the battery app be able to turn it off for when it goes into battery saving mode but of course that can be changed.

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