Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training has come under fire on BBC's Watchdog program for failing to recognise accents from the North. And you just thought it was 'grim up north'...
Deemed important enough to take up a five-minute slot on Monday night's show, Nintendo and its DS game, Dr. Kawashima's Brain Training, were under the spotlight of presenter Nicky Campbell.
First up was Manchester radio presenter Michelle Livesey who got the DS and game for Christmas, only to find it couldn't understand a word she was saying.
'Yeller' she kept mouthing into the mic, only to get it wrong time and time again. Other northern folk then appeared on camera and backed up the claims.
"Basically you have to say the different colours that flash up on the screen as quickly as possible," she said. "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."
Campbell went as far as saying that Brain Training "clearly discriminated against" certain accents, especially Northern and Scottish.
Nintendo didn't appear on the show but left a message saying it had been monitoring the voice recognition efficiency in its software since the game's launch in June 2006. And that its customer services department has received only a very small number of calls from people with accents who have been affected.
The firm also said it would like to apologise, and pointed out that Northerners should follow the advice given in the game manual. Page 47, in case you were wondering:
- The ideal distance to be from the Nintendo DS system when speaking into the microphone is about 20-30 cm (8-12 inches).
- Be careful, as the microphone is very sensitive, and shouting or blowing may hinder the voice recognition.
- The environment should be quiet.
- Pronounce each word as clearly as possible, and try to avoid using strong dialects or accents
Got that Salford and Glasgow? Good.
