The BBC's consumer watchdog program homes in on the DS' voice recognition capabilities.

Since its release almost two years ago, the Brain Training franchise on the DS has sold through just under 20 million copies, won numerous awards and has received international praise for its technical innovation. However, the games have also come under fire for their sometimes innaccurate voice and text recognition.

Today, BBC consumer program Watchdog has picked up on customer complaints about Brain Training's voice recognition. Radio reporter Michelle Livesey reported issues with the minigame which requires the user to shout the colour of the words shown on the DS' screens. "Basically you have to say the different colours that flash up on the screen as quickly as possible. I'm saying, blue, blue, blue and it's saying no, even though it was blue. Then it got to yellow. I'm going, 'yeller' and everyone's saying to me you need to be a bit posher. You need to say, 'yellow' and as soon as I did, it picked it up."

Clear enunciation and pronunciation is indeed the key. However, the report stated that Michelle's colleagues and other consumers (such as small children) also had difficulties with Brain Training's voice recognition.

Nintendo responded to Watchdog, and stressed that they are continuously monitoring ways in which they could improve the voice recognition technology in their games. Our favourite gaming giant stated that voice recognition tasks within the Brain Training games are just a small part of the game, and they can be turned off if the user so wishes. Nintendo also emphasised that the microphone works best when the DS is held 20-30cm away from the user's mouth, and that shouting and blowing as well as a noisy environment may affect the voice recognition.

Anyone who has listened to the podcast will know that I don't have the most enuniciated of accents, but I have no problems with the voice recognition in Brain Training. Readers, do you suffer from any of the technical problems mentioned in the Watchdog report?

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