Mobile device maker ZTE has unveiled a new smartphone that integrates voice recognition software as a key part of its user interface. The company is banking on the ZTE Star 2’s voice control functions to distinguish it from a growing roster of competitors, and is debuting the phone on the Chinese market.
Voice control isn’t a new thing, of course. Apple has had its Siri system running on its smartphones for a while now, while Microsoft introduced Windows Phone 8.1 users to its voice-controlled Cortana software earlier this year. Neither of those proved to be a wild success, but that doesn’t rule out the possibility of consumers embracing more advanced iterations of the technology. ZTE says that the smartphone’s technology has over a thousand patents supporting it, so it could prove to be advanced enough that users will opt to use it over the traditional means of interfacing.
The phone also sports motion sensing capabilities, with its software able to detect user movements such as raising the phone to one’s ear, in which case the user needs only to say the name of the individual to be called to set a phone call in motion. While ZTE doesn’t seem to have any intention of using these biometric capabilities for security purposes – as has generally been the case with biometrics in mobile devices – it does lie on the forefront of the trend of biometric technology increasingly finding its way into everyday use.
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