SOMETIMES it's just too much effort to lift the TV remote.
Luckily the people at Microsoft understand. The firm has just updated its Xbox Kinect so you can control the set simply by shouting at it.
In future, the console, intended as the entertainment hub of the home, will incorporate a microphone, TV service, an internet connection and the 'Bing' search engine.
Viewers will be able to talk to the Xbox and control what appears on the screen - be it content from YouTube, from a library of films or live TV.
For example, they could search for films starring a particular actor just by saying their name.
'You say it, Xbox finds it,' said Marc Whitten, corporate vicepresident of Xbox Live.
To watch live TV, for instance, you would say: 'Xbox live TV'.
Mr Whitten explained that the system, demonstrated at the E3 electronic entertainment trade show in Los Angeles, would do away with the need for a controller. 'You no longer have to navigate through the menus to find content,' he said.
The Kinect system is the first to allow users to play games without a handheld controller.
Players effectively synchronise their bodies with the Xbox via a sensor in front of the TV.
In future, it is thought that we will be able to control characters in video games through a mixture of movement and voice controls - putting them right in the middle of the action.
The Kinect has sold 10 million units since it launched last autumn, becoming the software firm's fastest-selling consumer product.
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