HAVE you ever seen anything on television that made you shout or shake your fist in anger at the screen? Televisions are, of course, unable to respond to such reactions. But that could be about to change. Controlling your television and other home entertainment devices using voice commands or gestures is starting to become possible thanks to a new generation of controllers.
　　Consider, for example, the controller that went on sale last month with Nintendo's Wii games console. In place of the usual (sometimes baffling) combination of buttons and joysticks, the Wii has a motionsensitive controller. The console can determine how the controller is moving in space and what it is pointing at, and uses that information to control what is happening on screen. Depending on the game, the controller becomes a warrior's sword or a golf club.
　　For some games, the controller connects up via a cable to a second, smaller handset called the "Nunchuk" after the weapon favoured by Bruce Lee in his martialarts movies (two batons linked by a chain). It is then possible to use one controller for movement, and the other to fire weapons or use items. The number of buttons on both controllers has been reduced to a minimum, as Nintendo hopes to draw in new customers who find existing games consoles too complicated. But whether the Wii will introduce a generation of grandmothers to the joys of karate games remains to be seen.
　　This living room overload is likely to get worse as telecoms operators launch a new generation of television over broadband services, using a technology called IPTV. This will make possible thousands of channels, downloadable programs and films, plus messaging, internet access and games. It will also involve the biggest and most complicated controllers ever seen. "The experience isn't as good as it could be," says Michael Cai of Parks Associates, a consultancy. So some companies believe a new approach is needed.
　　Other companies have looked at using speech based controllers in the living room. One firm, Promptu, developed a voice control system for American cable operators and tested it in conjunction with Motorola, which makes set top boxes. But it has now decided to reposition the technology as a voicebased navigation system for mobile phones. A simpler approach is taken by the In Voca voiceactivated remote control. It is a universal remote control that can recognise 50 separate commands spoken by up to four separate users, from "lower volume" to "Cartoon Network".　
　　A recent entry to the field is Apple Computer, a firm renowned for designing elegant, easy to use products. In 2007 it will launch a new device, called the iTV, that acts as a bridge between a television and a computer. It has a deliberately simple remote control that, like Apple's iconic iPod musicplayer, involves just one button and one wheel. Steve Jobs, the company's boss, boasts that it is "very Apple". Might his company be the one to solve the remotecontrol confusion?

　　你看电视的时候，是否曾边看边大叫？或者怒气冲冲地对着屏幕挥舞拳头？现在的电视机当然不会对你的举动有什么反应。但这种情形可能会发生变化了。新一代遥控器出现了，不久以后，你也许能用声音指令或手势控制电视机及其他家庭娱乐设备。
　　拿上月发售的任天堂Wii游戏机所带的控制手柄来作例子吧。通常，游戏手柄会由许多按钮与摇杆（有时能把人搞迷糊）组成，而Wii所带的却是一个动作识别手柄。游戏机能测出手柄的移动轨迹，识别手柄指着屏幕上的什么东西，然后根据得到的信息控制屏幕上的游戏。你手中的手柄是战士手中之剑还是高尔夫球杆，那就要看你在玩什么游戏了。
　　玩有些游戏时，还可以用线把遥控器接到另一个小一点的手持设备上，有人叫它Nunchuk，这个名字来自李小龙在武打片里喜欢用的武器（双截棍）。然后你就可以用一只遥控器控制行动，另一只用来开火或者使用游戏中的物品。任天堂把两个遥控器上的按钮数量都尽可能减少，希望能吸引到一批原来觉得玩游戏太复杂的新顾客。但Wii会不会让祖母级人群也感受到玩空手道游戏的快乐，现在还无从得知。
　　随着电信运营商在一种叫IPTV的技术基础上推出一系列结合电视机与宽带网络的新服务，我们的客厅很可能会变得越来越拥挤嘈杂。此类服务可能包括几千个电视频道、可下载的电视节目与电影、短信服务、互联网接入与网络游戏。遥控器也会相应变得比以往更大、更复杂。Parks Associates咨询公司的麦克尔•卡尔说，大家并不会喜欢使用那样的遥控器。所以一些公司认为要靠新方法来解决这个问题。
　　还有几家公司则考虑了另一条途径--在客厅里使用语音控制遥控器。Promptu公司就是其中之一，该公司为美国有线电视运营商研发出一种语音控制系统，并与制造机顶盒的摩托罗拉公司一同测试了此系统。但Promptu公司现又决定把这项技术重新定位成一种应用于手机的声控遥控导航系统。而InVoca的声控遥控器则采取了一种更简单的方法，这种遥控器几乎可以运用于所有设备，能识别4个不同使用者的50条命令--从降低音量到卡通网络。
　　最近，以产品设计的易用、别致著称的苹果电脑也进入这个领域。2007年该公司将会推出一款叫iTV的新设备，此设备能在电视与电脑间起到桥梁的作用。像苹果的标志性产品iPod音乐播放器一样，iTV的遥控器也有意简化至只有一个按钮与一个滚轮。苹果总裁斯蒂夫•钱伯斯声称该产品非常地苹果。苹果电脑公司能解决遥控器的迷局吗？