Interview with Marko Hein, Nintendo

What is revolutionary about Nintendogs is the control interface… It really is hands-free, using real voice recognition. When you first choose a dog from all the breeds available, you use the touch screen to pet it and stroke it, and while you’re doing this, the game prompts you to give your dog a name. You can call it anything and the game will ask you a few times to repeat the name, so it records your voice and the sound to then associate that sound with the dog’s name… After while you’ll be able to open up the DS, turn the game on and call your dog, who’ll then come over. You can interact with your dog purely by using your voice without even having to have the DS in your hands…

Check out the full interview at Hexus!