CES: BlueAnt Bluetooth Headsets Get Voice Controls

BlueAnt already is the little company making big waves in the Bluetooth space with stylish headsets that include cool features such as noise-cancellation technologies. Here at CES in Las Vegas, the company is releasing a new Bluetooth headset -- the V1 -- that is voice activated. This is different from issuing voice commands to your phone. This is where you're replacing presses-of-buttons on the headset (depressions that result in something like the pick-up of a call) with voice commands.

Here at the show, BlueAnt senior VP Peter George refers to the technology as the Blue Genie Voice Interface. It allows most of a Bluetooth headset's "commands" to be taken over with voice commands, George said, and even some of the phone functionality, too. For example, to answer a call, you bark the word "answer." To refuse the call, you say "ignore." You can use voice commands to check the remaining battery strength or even to verbally invoke the pairing of the headset with another Bluetooth device.

George expects the V1 to ship in the April time frame for about $119.