Talk To Your TV: AT&T Voice-Enables U-verse Remote-Control App

App available for iPhone and iPad devices

By Todd Spangler, Multichannel News -- Broadcasting & Cable, 9/26/2012 10:25:49 AM

AT&T has released an app for U-verse TV designed for people with vision and hearing impairment and other disabilities that lets subscribers control the TV with their voice or hand gestures.

The U-verse Easy Remote App, currently available for iPhone and iPad devices, lets subscribers change the channel by saying the show title or channel number. It also recognizes other spoken commands, such as channel up, channel down, fast forward, rewind, replay, pause, play and record.

AT&T claimed U-verse is the first major TV service to let customers use voice commands to control their TVs. Microsoft's Xbox 360 game console, with the Kinect attachment, also provides voice- and gesture-activated commands.

Other features of the Easy Remote app include: multiple screen-color, button and font-size choices; gesture commands; support for iPhone's VoiceOver text-to-speech app to read aloud TV show and channel information in the programming guide; and one-touch access to closed captioning.

"We're always looking for ways to improve the U-verse TV experience, and we knew this was an area where we could take a big step forward and use our IPTV platform to deliver a better and more accessible TV watching experience for seniors and customers with hearing and vision impairments," said Maria Dillard, vice president of U-verse and video products in AT&T Home Solutions.

Click here to read the full story at Multichannel News.