Ever wanted to just tell your computer to do something and have it obey? It works well enough in the Star Trek universe, and soon those playing the roles of Starfleet officer in Star Trek: Bridge Crew will get to experience it as well with IBM Watson integration.
Ubisoft’s Star Trek: Bridge Crew is due to launch later this month for HTC Vive, Oculus Rift and PlayStation VR. The developer says that the interactive speech feature will not be available from launch, but will be introduced as a limited Beta some time after launch for testing before being fully integrated into the experience in summer 2017.
The technology relies on a combination of two IBM features, Watson Speech to Text and Watson Conversation, which allows for Star Trek: Bridge Crew players to use natural speech commands to control certain aspects of the game and give orders to AI-controlled crew members.
“We have been eager to find the right way to use interactive speech further the immersive and interactive experiences that virtual reality offers,” said David Votypka, Sr. Creative Director at Red Storm Entertainment, a Ubisoft Studio. “Watson gives Captains in Star Trek: Bridge Crew the ability to issue commands to non-player crew members in the same way they do with a human crew; by using their voice. IBM provides an easy to integrate solution that is cloud based, so it’s light on code and performance while letting us remain fast on feature turnaround.”
“For the first time, Watson will power the technology that makes it possible for gamers and fans of Star Trek to interact with the crew,” added Willie Tejada, Chief Developer Advocate, IBM. “We are only just seeing the impact of virtual and augmented reality and IBM is committed to providing developers with the tools they need to innovate and be competitive in this AI and Cognitive era.”
VRFocus will bring you further news on Star Trek: Bridge Crew when it becomes available.