Star Trek Virtual Reality Game Boldly Goes With IBM Watson

IBM Watson works with a program called Conversation to interpret commands.

The game was released last month, but the new voice command will be unlocked on Thursday.

A player, the captain, may play with two other crew members played by other people or by the computer.

"The idea is that you can now talk to your bridge team, and that part has been driven by Watson," said Joshua Carr, IBM technical liaison.

"Originally, there was a set of menus to click to instruct the rudder and so on

"It works quite well, but it's the lowest common denominator - we're using our hands to give instructions - but this is virtual reality, and this is Star Trek.

"When we think of some of Patrick Stewart's incredible Jean Luc Picard lines or William Shatner's Captain Kirk, it's all about your voice, how you communicate."

Piers Harding-Rolls, a research director at IHS Markit, told the BBC news website: "In your average gaming experience, you do not have things like voice control.

"When it comes to virtual reality, you're looking for something that will keep you in the experience.

"Using your voice to interact with the characters in the game is a step further, adding credibility to the experience you are having, unlike if you had to use a controller."

If you've ever wondered what it's like to pronounce the immortal words "Engage" and "Warp speed ahead" and then move away from outer space, then you'll be in for a little pleasure.

Star Trek Bridge Crew has a triple A rating, which means it had a huge budget, and it shows.

The graphics are impressive and the production values are high.

It sells for about £ 35 in the UK, but you also need a high-end VR headset to enjoy it - and they cost considerably more.

Crucially, using the new voice control, you do not have to use fixed phrases to communicate - you can use your own words. Or, at least, that's the plan.

Being a captain of the USS Enterprise for a short time was a lot of fun, but the demo model I tried was not fully capable of following my orders.

At one point, I felt more like a charade game as I struggled to think of as many different ways as possible to tell the crew to embark aboard another crewmember on an affected vessel that we were supposed to rescue - did not understand The Essential Trekkie Phrase "make them up".

This proved to be a rookie error on my part, since I had forgotten to scan the virtual boat in the first place - but my virtual team did not answer when I asked them why they did not understand me - it would have been useful if they had been able to tell me What he had done wrong.

Joshua Carr says this will be part of the learning process for Watson-enabled software as it delves into human speech.