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Samsung's Galaxy S III has ears and eyes just for you

The new Samsung Galaxy S III is intelligent enough to recognize your individual voice and face.

Brian Bennett Former Senior writer
Brian Bennett is a former senior writer for the home and outdoor section at CNET.
Brian Bennett
Samsung Galaxy S III
Aloysius Low/CNET

Samsung says its newest smartphone, the Galaxy S III, has the brains to discern the sound of your specific voice and face from others.

Equipped with what the company calls Natural Interaction technology, the handset has a Smart Stay function that uses its front-facing camera to figure out if you're looking directly at it. In theory, the device will know not to, say, dim the screen when you need to view its display for extended periods. That should come in handy when reading e-books or lengthy online articles.

Samsung's Galaxy S III is plastic, but powerful (photos)

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Another of the Galaxy S III's interesting features, called S Voice, lets users command the phone by speaking to it. Don't worry though, not just anyone can come along and order your handset around. A Galaxy S III running S Voice will only respond to the sound of its owner's voice. Everyday scenarios Samsung gave for using S Voice include telling the smartphone "Snooze" when you want to shut off its alarm, and asking it to raise or lower music volume, without pressing a button.

Of course it remains to be seen just how well Natural Interaction will work and if average mobile users will find the feature truly handy.